Ravens, Gee-Gees looking to make their mark in move to OUA
Ottawa, Ont. (via Richard Coffey) - With the drop of the puck on a new season of women’s hockey this weekend, a new era began in the OUA.
For the first time since 2013, two new programs joined the fight for the McCaw Cup, as the Carleton Ravens and Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s hockey programs officially completed their transfers from the RSEQ and began their first seasons of OUA conference play.
The Gee-Gees actually began their existence as a women’s hockey varsity program in the OUA way back in the 2000-01 season, winning the bronze medal. They then left the conference, though, following that season and since then, Ottawa played every year in RSEQ/QSSF, winning the conference championship in 2004 and making four trips to the U SPORTS national tournament, including a national silver medal in 2004.
In their first two games of their return to the OUA, the Gee-Gees took a 1-0 win over the Western Mustangs on Friday night before hanging nine on the Brock Badgers in a 9-1 win on Saturday afternoon. That marked just the 10th time in the last fifteen years of OUA conference play that a team potted nine in a game.
“We want to show that even though we’re just coming into the OUA, we’re ready for the challenge that’s waiting for us, and we want to show that we can compete in this league.” Gee-Gees captain Béatrice Bilodeau said following the 9-1 win.
Led by first-year head coach and Ottawa native Ali Domenico, who joined Ottawa after serving as associate head coach of the Providence Friars since 2021, the Gee-Gees are well aware they won’t drop nine goals every night.
At the same time, there’s an advantage, especially for a team with nearly half its roster made up of first-year players, to having each first matchup against a team this season be the first time they have ever played them.
“We know it's going to be a new conference and a lot of new teams, so what’s exciting about that is we know who we’re playing, but having no games against them it really just allows us to focus on us more than anything,” Domenico said.
Meanwhile, the Carleton Ravens began their varsity women’s hockey run in RSEQ in 2004 but were never able to find as much success as their counterparts in the nation’s capital, as they reached the conference championship game just once in 2008, losing to the McGill Martlets. Into the new season, though, the Ravens are purposefully trying not to carry any of that history with them.
“The players are invigorated, everything’s new, they’ve never seen that coach before, they’ve never seen [Brock] before in regular season play,” Carleton head coach Stacey Colarossi said following the Ravens 5-2 win against the Badgers on Friday. “We’re gonna be going to new facilities, so everything new, it’s exciting, it’s an electric group in our space right now.”
For Colarossi, joining the OUA represents a bit of a homecoming.
Colarossi spent eight seasons as the associate coach of the York Lions women’s hockey team from 2004 until 2012 before taking over as the head coach of the Laurentian Voyageurs women’s hockey team for the entirety of their time in the OUA from 2013 to 2020.
After a year spent on the other side of the world in China as an assistant coach for the KRS Vanke Rays, which also included a stint as an assistant coach for Team China’s women’s hockey team at the 2022 Olympics, Colarossi took over as the head coach of the Ravens. For the OUA veteran, though, it’s nice to be back on familiar ground.
“There are a few barns that I’m excited for; I’ve always loved playing down at U of T, obviously with the history of that facility,” Colarossi said. “Waterloo is fun; they’re gearing up to host nationals,”
“There’s all different facilities, so it’s gonna be good to get around and see everyone again.”
The Ravens, for their part, ultimately split their weekend series, beating Brock 5-2 before dropping a 3-2 decision in a shootout to Western. Speaking following their win over Brock, though, fourth-year Hayden Serniuk, who also scored the first-ever OUA goal in Ravens history, laid out their team’s thought process pretty simply.
“We’re not just gonna sit back and take a bottom seat in this league here,” Serniuk said. “We’re really excited to see what we can do, the teams we can face, I think we can really make a mark here.”
