Four Okanagan women helped their respective schools to the podium at the U-Sports Canadian University Women's Hockey Championships, held in Elmira, Ont. March 20-23.
Lyndsy Acheson of Summerland captured silver with the Waterloo Warriors as the eighth seeds nearly capped off a Cinderella story, but fell 3-0 to the third-ranked Bishop's Gaiters of Sherbrooke, Que. in the gold-medal game Sunday.
Coldstream's Emma Elders and Kelowna's Jaia Freer helped the University of Toronto Varsity Blues to the bronze medal with a 3-1 victory over Montreal's Concordia Stingers. Elders had one assist in the game. Freer was kept off the scoresheet.
Scarlett Jones of Coldstream is a first-year player with the Varsity Blues, but she did not play in the tournament.
Bishop's edged Toronto 2-1 in a Saturday final (no points for Elders or Freer), while Waterloo advanced with a 5-1 win over Concordia. Acheson picked up one assist for the Warriors.
Vancouver's UBC Thunderbirds finished fifth in the eight-team event, downing the Alberta Golden Pandas 5-1.
Ashton Thorpe of West Kelowna had one helper for UBC while Chanreet Bassi of Lake Country was kept off the T-Birds scoresheet.
Holly Magnus of Vernon was held pointless for the Golden Pandas.
Play in the national tournament began Thursday and it was the Warriors making the biggest noise, as they upset the top-seeded Pandas 3-0. Acheson had an assist for Waterloo.
Second-ranked Toronto advanced to the final four with a 2-0 win over the seventh-seeded University of New Brunswick Reds. Elders and Freer were held pointless.
Bishop's needed late heroics and overtime to knock off UBC 4-3. The Gaiters tied the game with 32 seconds left in regulation time, then won it on Gabrielle Santerre's goal at 7:30 of OT.
Bassi and Thorpe were kept off the UBC scoresheet.
The fifth-ranked Stingers won the other quarterfinal, downing the fourth-rated St. Francis Xavier X-Women of Antigonish, NS 5-2.
In consolation round play, Bassi scored a powerplay goal to lift UBC to a 5-1 romp over UNB. Alberta defeated STFX 3-0. Magnus did not play for the Golden Pandas.