The Waterloo Warriors gave the nation's top team everything they could handle, but it wasn't enough to claim a spot in the national championship final.  

The Warriors fell 3-1 to the top-seed Concordia Stingers on Saturday afternoon at the U Sports Women's Hockey National Championship tournament in Saskatoon.  

Tatum James (Stratford, ON/) scored Waterloo's goal, while veteran Netminder Mikayla Schnarr (Waterloo,ON/) was brilliant with 37 stops on the afternoon. The Stingers got first-period goals from Zoe Thibault and Courtney Rice to jump to an early lead, and held off a ferocious comeback attempt from the Warriors to punch their ticket to the gold medal game on Sunday. 

"We knew it was important to get a good start against them, so it's tough," said head coach Shaun Reagan. "But we hung in there in the second, and had our opportunities. And then in the third, I thought we just left it all out there. I thought we were really good, but that's a really good team over there." 

The Stingers jumped out to a lead just over five minutes into the first period, when Thibault whacked a rebound through Schnarr to give Concordia the early advantage. The RSEQ conference champions doubled their lead with just under two minutes to play in the opening frame when Rice ripped a shot to the top corner, making it 2-0 Stingers after the first period. 

The Warriors earned some scoring chances as the see-saw second period progressed, and their best chance was on a Lyndsy Acheson (Summerland,BC/) breakaway, just after the Warriors blueliner had been sprung from the penalty box. But Concordia keeper Jordyn Verbeek kicked away Acheson's bid, and the score remained 2-0 after two. 

Paige Rynne (Ancaster,ON/) drew a penalty in the closing seconds of the middle stanza, and the Warriors had a chance to cut the lead in half with a power play to start the third period. It took just 29 seconds after puck drop for Leah Herrfort (Palmerston,ON/) to find Tatum James (Stratford, ON/) on the doorstep, as James' fourth goal of the tournament cut the Concordia lead to 2-1.  

The Warriors continued to press, and had a late power play opportunity to find the equalizer. But soon after Verbeek stymied Elizabeth Lenardon (Kelowna,BC/), Concordia's Jessymaude Drapeau broke in alone and scored shorthanded to put the victory away for the Stingers. 

The Warriors will now regroup and turn their attention to the bronze medal game, with the wounds still fresh from their semifinal loss. But according to Reagan, it's an important game for his team, and he knows they'll be ready. 

"We'll let them feel the way they're gonna feel for a bit," Reagan said of his team. "But they're already talking about tomorrow. We think it's important for our program to take the next step, so we're looking for bronze tomorrow." 

The bronze medal game will be played at 4pm eastern time, and streamed on cbcsports.ca and the CBC Gem app.