VAUGHAN, ON - The 2023-24 varsity season finished with the 2024 OCAA Indoor Soccer Championships where the Durham College women's soccer team earned a bronze medal.

Durham were drawn into a group on Thursday with the Conestoga Condors, St. Clair Saints and Sheridan Bruins after qualifying for the championship following their regionals performance the week before.

Opening the championship against the Condors, both sides had a defensive battle in a scoreless first half. Conestoga opened the scoring in the second half before Erika Bjorgum (Kingman, AB) scored the equalizer with just over eight minutes left on the clock.

Sage Thomas-Roberts (Toronto, ON) put the Lords ahead less than two minutes later and added the insurance marker to give Durham a 3-1 win to open the day.

In another addition of the Sledgehammer Series, the Lords and Saints battled to a scoreless draw. This put both teams in the position of sporting one win and one draw going into their final match of the day.

Finishing Thursday against the Bruins, Shelby Khan (Oakville, ON) gave the Lords an early lead with over five minutes to go in the first half.

Despite Sheridan applying desperate pressure near the end of the game, Sage scored goal number three on the day as the Lords won 2-0 to clinch a spot in the semifinal against the Centennial Colts on Friday.

Moving into the final day of the championship, the Lords took an early semifinal lead as Jaime Pye (Oshawa, ON) found the back of the net in the first five minutes.

Durham held a 1-0 lead through into the second half and Centennial tied it in the first two minutes. After the half hour mark, Centennial took their first lead of the game and that was enough for the Colts to hand the Lords their first loss of the championship stage.

The bronze medal match between the Lords and Saints was a rematch of the bronze medal affair from the outdoor season in the fall in which the Lords won it on penalty kicks.

Following a scoreless first half, Sage scored the matches only goal less than 15 seconds into the second half.

With the 1-0 victory, the Lords picked up their second bronze medal of the season. This brought Durham's varsity medal count up to seven provincial medals and eight total medals for the 2023-24 OCAA season.

On the men's side, the Lords went into Pool A on Thursday drawn against the Saints, Humber Hawks and George Brown Huskies.

Durham were blanked in their first two matches, falling 2-0 to Humber and 1-0 to George Brown.

Their final match of the day was a high-scoring affair against the Saints in a Sledgehammer Series matchup, however the opposition came out on top by a 3-2 score. 

The Lords were unable to qualify for the playoff stage on Friday and bowed out of the men's bracket.

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