Varsity Blues 3, Stingers 1: Concordia women’s hockey team falls to fourth place at Nationals

The Stingers dropped a rematch of the 2024 final in the bronze medal game

SportsBriefSamuel Kayll — Published March 24, 2025 0 minutes

After a first-round victory over the St. Francis Xavier University X-Women, the Stingers looked ready to continue their run to another final. Their path seemingly cleared further when eighth-seeded Waterloo knocked off the tournament’s top seed, the University of Alberta Pandas. 

However, the Warriors proved a worthy match for the defending champs. Forward Gracey Smith put the underdogs up 1-0 off a feed from forward Kassidy McCarthy just before the horn in the first period. McCarthy added another helper when forward and former Stinger Brodi Levitt doubled the lead in the second frame. 

Stingers defender Alexandra-Anne Boyer pulled a goal back for the Stingers in the third period, but McCarthy tacked a goal of her own onto the scoresheet to restore the two-goal lead, 3-1. Then, it was Levitt’s turn to add to her tally, scoring the team’s first empty-netter to pad the Warriors’ lead and then making it 5-1 by assisting on the second, Madison Pritchard’s finish with 33 seconds left.

With the loss, Concordia headed for the third-place match. Standing between the Stingers and a bronze medal was the University of Toronto, who Concordia defeated to take home gold at the 2024 U Sports women's hockey championship. 

Toronto took the lead in the first period when a puck trickled past Stingers goaltender Arianne Leblanc on the power play and Varsity Blues forward Sophie Grawbarger poked it into the net. In the second period, Concordia forward Jessymaude Drapeau scored her fourth goal of the playoffs to tie the game off a rebound. 

However, the biggest play of the night involved Stingers all-conference defender Léonie Philbert, when her collision with Toronto goaltender Lyla McKinnon injured the netminder badly enough to end her game early. Philbert was ejected, and little-used Varsity Blues backup Sarah-Lynn Gauthier was inserted in McKinnon’s stead.

Despite the change in net, Toronto found new life in the third period. Forward Abby Whitworth found a pocket of space at the back post and slipped the puck around Leblanc’s pad to put the Varsity Blues ahead. Attacker Scout Watkins Southward finished off the scoring with an empty netter to make it 3-1 and exact a sliver of revenge for the prior year’s loss. Gauthier stepped up with nine saves to hold the line for Toronto.

Concordia’s season ended with an overall record of 25-5-0. The Stingers finished second in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec along with their fourth-place finish at Nationals.

Concordia loses four players to graduation: Boyer, Philbert, and forwards Caroline Moquin-Joubert and Megan Bureau-Gagnon. With Moquin-Joubert’s departure, the Stingers will also search for a new captain in 2025-26.