Burlington, Ont. – Before the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) winter league sport champions are crowned at the recently announced finales, teams must first compete for a spot therein through the adjusted postseason structures.
Volleyball’s playoff picture will start coming into focus on March 9, with the Round 1 slate serving up matchups between each division’s No. 4 and No. 5 seeds. These initial winners will proceed to play the top seed in their respective divisions in Round 2 on March 12, alongside divisional battles between the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds as well. The winning teams will go head-to-head for divisional supremacy on March 16 in semifinal play, setting the stage for the Quigley Cup and Forsyth Cup to follow on March 19.
The women’s hockey playoffs, for which all matchups will be single-game elimination, will mirror that of volleyball, with the fourth and fifth seeds (within each division) hitting the ice on March 9. Teams that come away with a victory in their postseason openers will advance to complete each division’s final quartet. The top seeds will host the Round 1 victors, while the No. 3 seeds will travel to the No. 2 seeds for a quarterfinal faceoff. Divisional winners will be crowned when the semifinals hit the ice on March 16, and those final two teams will compete for the McCaw Cup on March 19.
The following weekend will see the OUA’s men’s hockey season come to a close with the 110th Queen’s Cup championship, but not before teams navigate their way through the postseason path.
When it comes to seeding, the Far West and West (FW/W) divisions will be combined, as will the Far East and East (FE/E) divisions. Therein, each division’s first-place teams will make up seeds one and two in the pairing, second-place teams will make up seeds three and four, and third-place teams will make up seeds five and six, respectively. The seventh and eighth seeds in FW/W and FE/E will be awarded to the two next best teams within the pairing, regardless of division.
Play will proceed with a single-game elimination format throughout the postseason, with the No. 8 seeds visiting the No. 1 seeds, No. 7 seeds battling the No. 2 seeds, etc. Winners from Round 1 will go on to compete at the home of the highest seeds in Round 2 (Mar. 19), which will then continue into the semifinals (Mar. 23) and, finally, the coveted men’s hockey championship on March 26.
The Queen’s Cup won’t be the only hardware distributed that day, as the basketball seasons will also see their respective quests for the Cup come to a close. Before those final teams take the court on March 26, however, both the women’s and men’s playoffs will tip off on March 16. The day’s slate will feature intra-divisional matchups (No. 6 @ No. 3; No. 5 @ No. 4), with winners then advancing within their division to play the top two seeds therein on March 19 (bracket format). The divisional clashes continue the following week, with the remaining two teams in each facing off on March 23, leaving the successful semifinalists to battle it out for the championship on March 26.
All OUA postseason play will be structured using a pure bracket system, with no re-seeding between rounds.
Fans can tune in to oua.tv throughout the postseason and remaining regular season action, the latter of which resumes on February 9, to see all of this coverage and more.
