ELMIRA, Ont. – The Guelph Gryphons women's hockey team is now just two wins away from the second national title in program history. Thursday night (March 19) at the Woolwich Memorial Centre in Elmira, Ontario, the Gryphons skated to a 2-0 victory over the tournament hosts, the Waterloo Warriors, in a U SPORTS quarterfinal showdown at the 2026 U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championships. Gryphons captain, Katherine Heard, scored the game-winner at the 7:15 mark of the first period, and Katy McKenna added an empty netter late for the OUA champion Gryphons, who defeated their OUA West rivals on the national stage to earn a spot in the U SPORTS semifinals. Gryphons goalie, and 2026 Olympian with Italy, Martina Fedel, turned away all 26 shots sent her way on the night for the shutout. Guelph, seeded No. 3 in the eight-team field, will now face the No. 2-seed champions out of Quebec, the Concordia Stingers, on Saturday at 4pm. Concordia won 3-1 over the Manitoba Bisons earlier in the day in their quarterfinal.

Despite the fact that Thursday marked the opening day of the women's hockey national championship tournament, it had a distinctly local feel for both the Gryphons and Warriors who found themselves meeting for the seventh time during the 2025-26 season, and second time in the postseason. The Gryphons defeated Waterloo in their OUA quarterfinal best-of-three series three weeks ago, with Guelph coming out on top in a tightly-contested series that went the distance, with Teghan MacRae's triple overtime winner in Game 3 giving Guelph the series win. But the Warriors, national silver medalists a season ago, were serving as tournament hosts of the U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championships for a second consecutive season, and it was an all-OUA West matchup on Thursday night in front of a capacity crown in Elmira. Despite the fact that the first period was a penalty-filled affair (six penalties total, three to Guelph, three to Waterloo), it would be Katherine Heard opening the scoring during an even strength opportunity. Heard, the 2025-26 OUA West MVP, would continue her standout season, circling the net and firing a shot into the top corner past Waterloo goalie, Kara Mark. For Heard, it marked her 4th goal of the playoffs, three of which have come versus Waterloo. It also marked the second consecutive game-winning goal for Heard on a big stage, after scoring the game-winner in the McCaw Cup (OUA championship game) last Saturday (March 14) versus Ottawa. The first period tally from Heard would prove to be the only open play goal of the game, with both teams generating pressure and coming close on several occasions, including each team hitting the crossbar. But the host Warriors were ultimately unable to solve Gryphons netminder, Martina Fedel (Trento, Italy), who recorded her third shutout in her last four playoff games.

The Gryphons will now face another tough test in the national semifinals, as the Concordia Stingers (RSEQ champions) will enter Saturday's U SPORTS semifinal with a 22-2-0 regular season record, and a 5-0 record in the playoffs. The Stingers have won four national titles in women's hockey, with the most recent coming during the 2023-24 season. The Gryphons are in search of their second national title in program history, with the first coming in 2018-19. Puck drop between Guelph and Concordia is set for Saturday (March 21) at 4pm, with the game broadcast live on CBC's digital channels (CBC Gem, CBC YouTube). 

The other two quarterfinals are set for Friday and are as follows:

Friday, March 20, 2026
3pm – #1 UBC vs #8 Montreal (U SPORTS Quarterfinal #3)
7pm - #4 UNB vs #5 Ottawa (U SPORTS Quarterfinal #4)