Warriors win OUA field hockey Championship after 21 year drought

For the first time since 2003, the University of Waterloo women’s field hockey team is provincial field hockey champions again.

"We were like, 'we made it here, we're here. We're going to get what we came for,'" Marielle Fernback, goalkeeper Waterloo Warriors.

The University of Waterloo entered the Ontario University Athletics provincial round robin as the lowest ranked team of the four competing. T

The Warriors managed to knock off longtime dominant teams like the University of Toronto and Guelph. Maria Haig, the Warriors head coach, said her team has spent a long time improving to earn the fourth provincial gold medal in the program’s history.

"If you've been watching, it feels like it's been a long time coming, but it's been a slow but measured crawl to the top," Haig said.

In the OUA gold medal game, Waterloo shutout Guelph 2-0 to earn their spot in the nationals. Fernback stopped all three shots she faced against Guelph.

"Everybody showed up to play. My defense were solid and I fully trusted everybody on the field," Fernback said.

Fernback has been the firm back of the team for two years now, but she took a bit of a different path to the university championships.

"So the rookies are 11 years younger than me," Fernback said.

The now 28-year-old Fernback started her undergrad at Western University in 2013. She won OUA Goalkeeper of the Year with the purple and white in 2017. Fernback later graduated and started a career, but kept playing the sport in the summer.

"I was playing in a premier league for field hockey in the summer. One of the Waterloo coaches, Alana (Raymond), was on my team and we came up with this idea of maybe I could come back, maybe I could play, maybe I could take classes again. It just seemed like such a wild idea," Fernback said.

That wild idea paid off. Fernback was redshirted in her first two season with Western, so she had two years of eligibility left. She took up classes at Waterloo last year, continued working a fulltime job and earned OUA Goalkeeper of the Year again, while also being named an All-Canadian.

"Everybody here on the team is my friend. No one treats me differently. I don't think about it, like some of my best friends on the team are the youngest," Fernback said.

Fernback said she is also enjoying school again.

"I'm loving learning for fun. It's so cool. I've been doing the work, and this is hilarious, I'm actually doing better than I did in my undergrad," Fernback said.

"Pretty incredible story to have taken that time off, come back. She also won a goalkeeper of the year and all Canadian last year. Both the most major awards you can win in our sport for a goalkeeper last year. Then she's obviously had a phenomenal season again this year," Haig said.

Fernback said her journey is a prime example to keep doing what you love.

"Never think anything is ever over or ever not achievable. I finished my career in 2018 or so I thought. I thought, 'this is it. This is done. It's over.' Now look at where I am today. It's just mind blowing to really sit down and think about it," Fernback said.

Maria Haig, head coach, University of Waterloo field hockey team. (Source:/OUA)

Hockey and winning runs in head coach Haig’s blood. She spent five years playing on the Warriors field hockey team. She’s also spent ten years coaching the team, earning U Sports Women's Field Hockey Coach of the Year last year. She's also the daughter of Waterloo Athletic Hall of Famer and all-time leading scorer in field hockey, Lisa Bauer Leahy, who also competed for Canada at the 1984 Olympics. Haig’s great-uncle is ice Hockey Hall of Famer Father David Bauer.

"I'm the oldest in my family and I have six younger siblings and I'm the only one who went to Waterloo. So I like to think that it's, I'm the one who's continuing that tradition and very proud to do it," Haig said.

The Warriors are now competing against some of the best teams in the nation, at an invitational championship run by Field Hockey Canada and sanctioned by U Sports, at York University.

The Warriors lost to the University of Victoria in their first round robin game on Thursday. Waterloo also fell to York University 2-0 on Friday. Their final round robin match is against University of Prince Edward Island on Saturday. Waterloo will play PEI for Bronze on Sunday.

Win or lose, Fernback knows it's her last year of eligibility, but she plans to keep playing the sport no matter what.

"I'm going to play until I can't walk anymore. Like I can't give up the sport. I love it," Fernback said.

Although it is now an invitational tournament, Waterloo has competed at ten different U SPORTS national championships with a 7-26-2 overall record. The team has never won the U SPORTS or national invitational championship.

Years Waterloo won OUA Championship and attended a national event

2003 – Waterloo finished 5th, defeating Western 2-1 in OT in the 5th place game

2002 – Waterloo won bronze, defeating Toronto 2-1 in the 3rd place game

2001 – Waterloo finished 2nd, falling to UBC 3-2 in the Gold medal game

1995 – Waterloo finished 5th, defeating York 1-0 in the 5th place game