Sunday, Sept. 18 vs. Western @ Guelph
Waterloo 4, Western 1

Sunday, Sept. 18 vs. Toronto @ Guelph
Toronto 3, Waterloo 1

The Warriors Field Hockey team opened up their 2011 OUA campaign in Guelph yesterday morning with a 4-1 win over Western and hard fought loss to Toronto 3-1.

In the opening game, Western came out strong and caused confusion for the Warriors midfeld and defence by overloading players in their attack. The Warriors tried to make adjustments but weren't able to maintain much possession. However, they started to find small openings in the Western formation for counter-attack opportunities and in the tenth minute broke out successfully.

Co-captain Kara Moro (Port Moody/) had her initial shot saved but followed up on the rebound and was awarded with a penalty stroke when the last defender illegally used her hand to deflect the ball from goal. Courtney Bisch (Wellesley/) stepped up and buried her stroke to put the Warriors ahead, which settled the nerves for the Waterloo players.

Western continued to play hard and dominate territory but the Warriors were slowly finding more attacking options and generating both shots on net as well as penalty corners. Two minutes before half, rookie Stephanie Snyder (Waterloo/) added to Western's frustration and scored on a short corner.

The second half was saw the Warriors come out aggressively and win another penalty corner two minutes after the re-start. Courtney Bisch (Wellesley/) executed a perfect drag flick to bring the lead to 3-0, and the Warriors began to control the game with most of the play now in the Western half. 

The Warriors continued to pressure the Western defense leading to yet another penalty stroke by Waterloo but this time Bisch would find the post and the score would remain 3-0 for the black and golf.

The missed penalty stroke lifted Western's spirits and three minutes later, they were able to create a counter-attack chance where second year goaltender Bronwen Clayfield-Jewett (Waterloo/) was finally beaten by Western's Alexandra Nelson. Not to be outdone Bisch would complete the hat trick minutes later making the final 4-1.

Two hours later, the Warriors took to the field again to take on the defending CIS National Champions, the Toronto Varsity Blues. Having experienced the aggressive hitting and running style the weekend earlier, the team knew what to expect but did not execute the game play early on.

Confusion in the Warriors team continued from some of the running patterns of the Varsity Blues forwards and midfielders which led to goals by the Blues at the 21^st and 28^th minutes by Katherine McNeill and Hannah Tighe. Tighe would add another goal before the half to make the score 3-0 for Toronto heading into halftime.

Waterloo came out firing in the second half as the Warriors were able to get a handle on their defensive structure. While Toronto was still able to generate attack, they weren't given many clear cut chances for shots on net, both from action play and from penalty corners. Despite gaining 10 penalty corners in the second period (15 in total), Bronwen Clayfield-Jewett (Waterloo/) and the defensive corner unit were able to keep Toronto off the board.  Waterloo's Melissa Lewis (Waterloo/) would add a late goal to deny Toronto the shutout as the Warriors fell by a score of 3-1.