The old saying “there’s no place like home,” hasn’t applied to the UOIT Ridgebacks women’s lacrosse team – until now.
After seven seasons of playing their home at Oshawa’s Civic Fields, the Ridgebacks finally have a home field on campus. The new artificial turf at Vaso’s Field (beside the Campus Ice Centre) will house all the UOIT lacrosse home games.
The first ‘true’ home game will be Oct. 6 when UOIT hosts a pair of games, against the York University Lions at 8:30 a.m. and the University of Toronto Blues at 1:45 p.m.
“This is the first full year they’ve trained on Vaso’s Field,” says Christopher Cameron, UOIT’s sports information and special events coordinator. He says they’ve trained on campus before in the Campus Fieldhouse but their games have always been at Civic Fields.
“It’s the first time it’s ever happened for women’s field lacrosse (Ridgebacks) so it should be really good for our team,” says goalkeeper Lauren Young.
Installation of the new turf started at the beginning of the summer and was finished in mid-August. According to the campus master plan, there will eventually be an academic building in place of the field but there is currently no time frame set for its construction.
Hosting home games this 2018 season might bring the Ridgebacks some luck after finishing ninth in the standings last year.
UOIT also hosts Western and McMaster on Oct. 13.
