GUELPH – The Guelph Gryphons suffered their only loss of the 2015 OUA women's rugby league season Saturday at Varsity Field and it was enough to keep the Gryphs out of this week's Canadian university championship tournament.

The loss was a heart-breaking 21-13 defeat by the reigning champion McMaster Marauders in the OUA final.

"I'm at a loss for words," Gryphon coach Colette McAuley said right after the medal presentations. "We didn't play as well as hoped. We didn't have our best game, obviously, and kudos to Mac. They played a great game."

The game was the expected low-scoring affair from the two teams that had led the OUA in points scored during the regular season as the Gryphs had scored 439, McMaster 315. They'd also been the top two teams in fewest points against as Guelph had surrendered 10, the Marauders 46.

The Gryphs held a slim 8-7 lead at halftime on a try by Emily Samek and penalty kick by Alex King while Emily Ricketts had a late try for McMaster that was converted by Steph Black.

Devon Stober added to Guelph's lead with an unconverted try early in the second half to put the hosts up 13-7.

The Gryphs were given a yellow card for a repeat offender after the midway point of the second half and were a player down when the Marauders took the lead on a Cindy Nelles try and Black convert.

"A lot of penalties and a lot of penalties in the scrum where we've been dominant all year," McAuley said. "It was hard for us to adapt when we weren't clear, I don't think, on how to adapt to what he wanted to see. We had great form in our opinion. A great strength all of a sudden became one of our weaknesses. It cost us 10 minutes in the sin bin and you can't play down against a team like that. They're too good."

McMaster held the lead the remainder of the game, although the Gryphs had a shot to go ahead, but King booted a penalty kick with five minutes to go wide.

Christine van Beest added a final try for the Marauders after that and Black hit for her third convert of the day.