Laurier women’s fastpitch team remains undefeated with 7-0 lead

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Photo by Paige Bush

Womenโ€™s fast pitch at Laurier has gone on a seven-game win streak, sitting first in their division as they stay undefeated during the first two weekends of their season, aiming towards a first place finish at the seasonโ€™s end.

โ€œWe have a really strong focus obviously we are hosting the national championships this fall and four of the last five years weโ€™ve come second to Western and this is a pretty veteran team, so we have a lot of girls in their last year who want to make that jump and beat Western in the finals. For us weโ€™re really focused on one game at a time,โ€ said Matt Allen, head coach of the womenโ€™s fast pitch team.

โ€œItโ€™s going to be tough the way the playoff format works, the only chip on our shoulder is that weโ€™re focussed on two goals in mind, two gold medals in October, so weโ€™re really not looking at standings or who our playoff matchup could be, weโ€™re focused on those two goals and weโ€™re not paying a whole lot of attention to the standings.โ€

Starting the season with two wins each over Ryerson and Toronto, the purple and gold continued their win streak with two wins over Windsor as well as one win over rival team Western, who has taken the gold medal from the Golden Hawks the last two years.

โ€œFor us it was a really big booster beating Western — they donโ€™t lose a whole lot of games, so for us it was a big mental block to get over on Friday. Coming out with a win gets it in their minds that the team is not invincible and we can beat them when we play our game,โ€ Allen said.

โ€œIt proved to ourselves and our athletes who have lost to Western over the last four years that the Western team is human–and if anybody can beat them itโ€™s us.โ€

The womenโ€™s team will stay at home Friday night to battle the Waterloo Warriors for two games before travelling to Guelph for a double header Saturday morning and finishing off their weekend with two final games against Queenโ€™s in Kingston on Sunday afternoon.

โ€œRight now, weโ€™re really focused on some stuff off the field mental game. The girls are in the gym three to four times a week. We have six games this weekend, which is a lot, so our focus is to stay healthy,โ€ Allen said.

โ€œWeโ€™ve got them focused on their sleep patterns and what theyโ€™re eating, but we put more of a focus on their mental game because when youโ€™re hosting the national championships and when you have the top eight teams in the country in one spot there will be a lot of tight games — so weโ€™re focusing on getting that edge mental wise.โ€

The national championships are being hosted at Budd Park on Oct. 11-13 and the Golden Hawks will be looking to bring a championship back to Laurier on home soil.

โ€œThis year is a special year for us because hosting the national championships is obviously a big deal, but itโ€™s been 10 years since we won our first national title, which was here in Kitchener as well, so weโ€™ve got some engaged alumni theyโ€™re coming out to games and weโ€™re doing a celebration with them the Saturday of the championships so this team has a cool background story this year.โ€


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