Varsity Blues successfully defend title at OUA Badminton Championship

TORONTO, Ont - The University of Toronto Varsity Blues won their second straight Ontario University Athletics (OUA) badminton championship on Sunday afternoon at the Tait McKenzie Centre at York University.

The result marks the fifth time since 1997 the Blues have won the team title. They earned the victory in convincing fashion, taking down the Western Mustangs 6-1 in the final to claim the banner. The Mustangs were forced to settle for the silver medal, an improvement from their bronze-medal showing last year, while the McMaster Marauders cruised to a 6-0 win over the Waterloo Warriors in the bronze-medal contest to finish in third place. 

The Blues reached the final but dominating the Warriors to win 6-0 in the semifinals, while the Mustangs eliminated the Mustangs from gold-medal contention by narrowly winning their semifinal 6-4.

Toronto's Bethany So was named the female most valuable player at the end of the meet after going undefeated in six matches. In her four singles matches she outscored her opponents 168-53, including a 21-7, 21-5 triumph over Western's Claudia Tai in the championship match. 

The MVP award on the men's side went to Clement Chow from the Marauders, who was also undefeated in six matches played, including fie singles victories.

His teammate, Jayme Carter, was named the female rookie of the year after a busy weekend in which she played in nine doubles matches and won eight of them. 

The male rookie of the year award was given to Jonathan Lai from the champion Blues. He won two singles matches in the preliminary round and picked up three mixed doubles victories.

The Blues' head coach, Stephane Cadieux, won the coach of the year award for the second straight year after leading his team to defend their title in just his second year at the helm. 

In other results, the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Ryerson Rams battled for fifth place for the second straight year, with the Gee-Gees once again coming out on top, this year by a score of 6-4. Likewise, the Queen's Gaels and York Lions competed for seventh place, which this year was won by Queen's to avenge last year's loss. The Guelph Gryphons and Carleton Ravens finished ninth and 10^th, respectively.

Final Standings
Gold – Toronto
Silver – Western
Bronze – McMaster
4^th – Waterloo
5^th – Ottawa
6^th – Ryerson
7^th – Queen's
8^th – York
9^th – Guelph
10^th – Carleton
11^th – UOIT 

OUA Major Awards
Male Most Valuable Player – Clement Chow, McMaster
Female Most Valuable Player – Bethany So, Toronto
Male Rookie of the Year – Jonathan Lai, Toronto
Female Rookie of the Year – Jayme Carter, McMaster
Coach of the Year – Stephane Cadieux, Toronto

OUA Male All-stars
Clement Chow, McMaster
Andrew D'Souza, Ottawa
Austin Flannigan, Ottawa
Jack Hall, Western
Bryan Jok, Western
Muhammad Kamaruddin, McMaster
Jonathan Lai, Toronto
Andrew Wilkinson, Toronto 

OUA Female All-stars
Jayme Carter, McMaster
Giselle Chan, Toronto
Karissa Chan, Western
Joletta Cheung, McMaster
Vivian Kwok, Toronto
Emily Lam, Waterloo
Bethany So, Toronto
Samantha Zheng, Western