By Dan Plouffe
Following a silver medal last year, the Carleton University Ravens are now on top of the world following their triumph at the 2025 FISU 3×3 Basketball University World Cup in Brazil.
Gatineau’s Ingrid Matteau and Dorcas Buisa, along with Ravens teammates Tatyanna Burke and Noelle Kilbreath, pulled off a pair of two-point victories en route to a perfect 5-0 mark against opponents from Iran, two from Spain, China and Ukraine.
It was the first time a Canadian school won the University World Cup title.
Burke, who earned world silver alongside Buisa last year, told FISU after the tournament that they wanted to win in honour of the others who were runners-up in 2024, and for their supporters back home.
“I’m really proud of us and I love these guys,” she underlined.
The Ravens played three playoff games on Sunday. They beat Seville 20-14 in the quarterfinals to earn a rematch with the 2024 champions from Huazhong.
Carleton took down their Chinese rivals 21-19 in a back-and-forth, physical affair and then cruised on to a 16-11 in the championship game over Vasyl Stefanyk.
“We work really hard and we love each other,” Kilbreath highlighted. “We’re so happy to be here. This was such an amazing experience.
“We’re so thankful to represent our university, our team and our country.”
Burke and Buisa won gold at May’s FISU America 3×3 Championships earlier this year alongside Kyana-Jade Poulin and Jacqueline Urban.
Back in Ottawa, Poulin and Urban were Carleton’s top scorers in a pair of home-court Ontario University Athletics women’s basketball victories over Waterloo (65-47) and Laurier (64-46).
The 6-1 Ravens will face the 5-2 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in their next match on Nov. 22 at uOttawa.
The Carleton and uOttawa men’s basketball teams carry identical records as their schools’ women’s squads and will also play on Nov. 22. Carleton beat Laurier and Waterloo handsomely last weekend, but uOttawa stumbled to a 77-75 loss to Waterloo before trouncing Laurier.
In other local OUA action this past weekend, the 7-4-2 Gee-Gees topped Concordia 2-1 and lost to RMC 5-4 in overtime in men’s hockey, while the 6-7-1 Ravens lost 5-1 to UQTR and beat Nipissing 2-1 in overtime.
In women’s hockey, 5-1-1-3 uOttawa won by a goal in a shootout at Brock and lost by a goal in regulation at Waterloo, while 0-2-2-7 Carleton twice lost road games by four goals to both Laurier and Guelph.
The 5-1 Gee-Gees won both of their women’s volleyball matches 3-1 at Lakehead.
SPEED SKATERS DEBUT NEW TEAM PURSUIT STRATEGY IN SEASON-OPENING WORLD CUP SILVER MEDAL WIN
Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin gathered with Valérie Maltais of La Baie, Que. for an uncommon camp focused on the team pursuit discipline in advance of their World Cup and Olympic speed skating seasons.
On Sunday, they unveiled their work with a silver medal performance at the season’s first World Cup in Salt Lake City, Utah as they skated to a time of 2:52.40 in the second of four pairs, just behind Japan’s winning mark of 2:52.13.
“We played around with our strategy a lot this summer,” Weidemann said via Speed Skating Canada. “We skated together a lot more, which is something we haven’t done in the last four years since the Games. We kind of all went different directions, with different coaches, but we made it a priority to work on the team pursuit this summer.”
The trio explained to CBC Sports in advance of the race that although it may be nice to share the workload of who has to skate at the front, they would lose time each time they switched orders.
So the reigning Olympic champions ditched their past approach of taking turns and instead stuck with Weidemann leading the way, Maltais in the middle and Blondin at the back for the full six-lap race. Their time at Salt Lake City came within four-tenths of a second of their national record of 2:52:067, set at a 2021 World Cup in Calgary.
“We used exchanges quite a bit in the past, but the world has gotten so much faster so we had to go back to a no-exchange strategy and figure out who should be in front,” Weidemann noted. “We looked at everyone’s strengths and have created a strategy that reflects that. [Sunday] was the first time we used it in a race, so I think we need to trust it a little bit more. It’s fast, and now we know it’s fast.”
WATCH CBC Sports | Maltais, Blondin and Weidemann of Canada collect World Cup Team Pursuit silver medal
Blondin also placed fifth in what was perhaps the worst women’s mass start race in World Cup history.
The 35-year-old Gloucester Concordes product was tops out of a chase pack that showed zero interest in chasing during the race despite the lead pack standing and gliding themselves many times.
Japan’s Momoka Horikawa initiated a breakaway very early in the 16-lap race but wound up finishing fourth, with Maltais taking silver behind USA’s Mia Manganello, who showed she had the quickest legs once she hit the gas just before the last lap.
It was Maltais’s second silver and third medal of the meet, having also taken second place in the women’s 3,000 m, where Weidemann was fifth and Blondin eighth. Blondin also placed 11th in the women’s 1,500 m.
JAKE WEIDEMANN EXPLODES FOR BIG CAREER-BEST
Jake Weidemann, the 29-year-old younger brother of 30-year-old Isabelle, blasted off his 2025-26 season with a giant personal-best performance in the men’s mass start.
Jake rocketed to fourth place in 7:40.35, finishing just .04 seconds back of Canadian teammate Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu of Sherbrooke, Que. for a spot on the podium. Jake earned the top Division A result of his international career. His previous bests also came in the mass start, where he placed 15th on the World Cup circuit last season and again 15th at the 2024 World Championships in Calgary.
Jake and Gélinas-Beaulieu relaxed at the back of the back for the first six laps but then moved up together and took the lead at the start of the 10th lap.
Gélinas-Beaulieu told Speed Skating Canada they were unsatisfied with the confidence the pack was demonstrating, so they took the reins and ultimately created a six-man breakaway in the race won by Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands in 7:39.20.
“We believed in ourselves. We demonstrated teamwork like I’ve rarely seen before, with each skater taking their turn leading without hesitation. I was successful in conserving just enough energy to push at the right moment, and that’s what allowed me to step on the podium,” Gélinas-Beaulieu highlighted. “Coming out of this race with a medal, and having done it next to Jake right to the finish line, that makes it even more special.”
Calgary will host the next stop on the World Cup circuit this coming weekend from Nov. 21-23.
COLLINDA JOSEPH RETURNING TO PARALYMPICS IN WHEELCHAIR CURLING
Ottawa officially has its first athlete nominated to Team Canada for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Collinda Joseph, who made her Paralympic debut at age 56 at the Beijing 2022 Games, was officially named to Canada’s five-player wheelchair curling roster on Monday.
The 2022 Paralympic bronze medallist from Stittsville played in one match for Canada at the last Games, but is eager to step up this time as the lead alongside skip Mark Ideson (whose daughter Brooklyn won a 2024 Ontario U18 title with the Team Vivier Ottawa Hunt rink), second Ina Forrest, third Jon Thurston and alternate Gilbert Dash.
“You want to be part of the team and be doing something you feel is a benefit to the team and part of a winning environment. Finding a way to do that as an alternate is incredibly difficult,” Joseph said in a CBC Sports feature. “Knowing that I’m named as the starting lead leaves me in a position to be OK with some of the mistakes I make and any missed shots knowing I have another opportunity to make up for it. It’s a much more comforting feeling.”
GABY DABROWSKI HELPS CANADA TO NEXT STAGE OF BILLIE JEAN KING CUP
Ottawa’s Gaby Dabrowski helped Canada advance through the Billie Jean King Cup playoffs and on to the 2026 qualifiers of the international women’s tennis team competition.
Doubles specialist Dabrowski paired up with Victoria Mkobo to the win the deciding doubles match of Canada’s series with Denmark 6-2, 6-4.
Canada later swept Mexico 2-0 to advance to the next round of competition – one away from qualifying for the 2026 Cup finals.
Dabrowski, who recently announced she’d split with her regular WTA doubles partner Erin Routliffe, won Canada’s first-ever Billie Jean King Cup with a much different team lineup in 2023.
ELIJAH ROCHE LOSES IN PAINFUL PKs TO END CANADA’S BREAKTHROUGH FIFA U17 MEN’S WORLD CUP RUN
Ottawa’s Elijah Roche and Team Canada exited the 2025 FIFA U17 Men’s World Cup in heartbreaking fashion, losing an extended 10-round penalty-kicks shootout to Ireland in its first playoff match of the Nov. 3-27 event in Qatar.
The Irish goalkeeper made a stunning one-handed diving stop on defender Roche to end the shootout for a 9-8 Ireland victory following a 1-1 regulation contest in the round of 32.
Earlier in the tournament, Roche scored a goal in Canada’s first-ever win in 25 tries at the U17 Men’s World Cup competition. The Ottawa TFC product played every minute for Canada at the World Cup, which also included a scoreless draw against France and a 2-1 defeat to Chile in the group stage.
END NOTES
· Ottawa’s Alexander Woodford won a bronze medal in the men’s U23 division at the Canadian Cyclocross Championships in Lévis, Que. Ottawa’s Carter de Veer placed 13th in the most populated division of the nationals with 55 riders in the U19 men’s event.
· The National Capital Amateur Football Association-champion Cumberland Panthers lost to the host Durham Dolphins in the finals of both the U14 and U12 Ontario Fall Football Cup competitions. The U14 Myers Riders won the provincial Tier 2 championship over Quinte.
· Courtney Bowditch of Rideau Gymnastics represented Canada at the 2025 world junior/age group trampoline & tumbling championships in Spain, placing 23rd out of 35 girls aged 17-21. She scored 40.3 points to miss a qualifying position for the finals by 3.8.
