Martlets Basketball

As the fourth seed in this year’s women’s U Sports basketball tournament, the McGill Martlets defeated the Regina Cougars on March 9, securing the school’s third consecutive trip to the national semi-finals. After a shaky start to the season, the Martlets entered the weekend riding a hot streak, winning nine of their last ten games and undefeated in their last five. Alex Kiss-Rusk has led the way for the team, averaging over 14 points per game to that point. Aside from their star centre, the squad has found its success through expert shooting and dominant rebounding.

McGill trumped the Laval Rouge et Or in the tournament’s final round to earn the school’s first women’s basketball national championship in McGill history. One day before, McGill upset Carleton–the tournament’s highest-seeded team. Their postseason run came after the team won this year’s RSEQ championship. The Martlets finished their historic campaign with a sterling 25-9 record after starting the season 2-5.

—Stephen Gill 

Redmen Basketball

McGill Redmen basketball should do nothing but hold their heads high as their 2016-17 season comes to an end. The squad clinched their second consecutive RSEQ title–and third in four years–after a dominating 13-3 regular season and an 82-65 routing of the UQÀM Citadins in the RSEQ final. Missing their starting point guard Kendrick Jolin, who was dealt a season ending injury on Feb. 16, the team headed into the U Sports tournament riding a seven-game winning streak. Looking to rebound after an upsetting 72-69 first round loss to Calgary in last year’s CIS tournament–now called U Sports–the Redmen downed the University of Manitoba Bison 63-53 to advance. Unfortunately for McGill, the team next came face-to-face with the six-time defending champion Carleton Ravens. Despite a valiant effort from the Redmen, the team fell short, losing 74-58. Unable to recover from the loss, McGill fell again to Dalhousie in a close fought 69-63 bronze medal game.

—Aaron Rose

Martlets Hockey

The fourth-ranked McGill Martlets Hockey team secured the program’s 14th RSEQ conference championship on March 4, with a 3-0 win over the Concordia Stingers. After finishing the regular season 16-4, the Martlets took the number-one seed into the RSEQ tournament. They pushed past the fourth-seeded University of Ottawa in the semi-finals, then rolled past Concordia in the best-of-three final without conceding a goal. 

McGill now has a week off to prepare before heading to the U Sports Women’s Hockey National Championship in Napanee, ON starting on March 14. The Martlets last won a national title in 2014. 

Fifth-year centre Mélodie Daoust leads the team in scoring with 56 points in 33 games and second-year forward Olivia Atkinson is the leading scorer with 26 goals. Freshman goaltender Tricia Deguire has been solid in goal this season with a 1.62 goals against average and a 0.934 save percentage.

—André Morin

Redmen Hockey

With a 21-4-3 record, Redmen Hockey finished the regular season in first place in the OUA. In the RSEQ quarter-finals, McGill narrowly beat Laurentian in Sudbury, to follow up a home-ice blowout that moved the Redmen into the semifinals. After two subsequent victories against UQTR, the Redmen fell short in the conference finals, losing to Queen’s in a best-of-three series. However, the Redmen managed to clinch the OUA Bronze wild card series against the Windsor Lancers on March 10 to secure their berth in the U Sports Final 8 Championship. Now the team will travel to New Brunswick to compete in the U Sports tournament where McGill hopes to overcome OUA disappointment and win their first national championship since 2012. 

—Patrick Beacham