Story, image and audio by Jonnel Briscoe

Durham College advances to the OCAA Championships

The Lady Lords has done it again. For the second straight season, the Durham College women’s indoor soccer team finished second place in the East Region Championship qualifying for the OCAA Championship next week.

The Lords will be going up against the top eight teams at the OCAA Championship from March 25- 26 at the OSA Soccer Centre in Vaughn.

The top two teams from each region qualifies for a shot at the Championship, but the men however were one game away from their chance as they came in third place.

But on a good note, the Lady Lords started the Regional off with a bang as they defeated the George Brown Huskies 4-0. Their streak continued as they defeated Centennial 1-0 and Canadore 5-0 to hold down a spot at the Provincials.

Their only loss of the Regional championship came against their rival team, the Seneca Sting, who defeated Durham 4-2.

Seneca finished in first place with a 4-0-0 record while Durham clinched second place with a record of 3-1-0.

The two rival teams, Durham and Seneca, will be in separate pools at the OCAA championship.

Ken Babcock, Director of Athletics and Recreation at Durham College and UOIT, says he believes the women have a shot at a medal because of their strong performance.

“They train hard and they train a lot,” he said. “They are high performance athletes who are representing the school well.”

Listen below for more from Babcock.

Though the high profile player of the team is Katie Watts Babcock everyone on the team works hard and without each player the team wouldn’t make it that far.

Listen for more.

The Lords are looking to win their third OCAA provincial title in seven years. Their last title was in 2007.

The qualifying teams for the OCAA Championship are:

Conestoga (Kitchener)

Durham (Oshawa)

Humber (Etobicoke)

Fanshawe (London)

Fleming (Peterborough)

Seneca (North York)

St. Lawrence (Cornwall)

Sheridan (Oakville)

Seneca came first in the Regional followed by Durham, Centennial, George Brown and Canadore.

For results from the Regional Championship visit the Durham Lords website at www.durhamlords.com. From there you can also find out more about the upcoming Championship.