January 20, 2015

CULING ROUNDUP: Brock Invitational

Varsity Blues second at Brock Invitational

The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's and women's curling teams both placed second as they opened their season at the 2015 Brock Invitational, January 18-19, in St. Catharines, Ont.

U of T's OUA defending champion men opened the bonspiel with a 5-4 victory over Western and continued with a 5-0 win over the host Badgers on Saturday.

The Blues went onto top Trent 9-4 and UOIT 7-1 to earn a spot in the final match. The Blues dropped a 6-2 decision to the Guelph Gryphons to place second overall.

Toronto's women opened the tournament with an 8-5 loss to Trent, but bounced back to beat UOIT 5-4 on Saturday night.

U of T defeated the Brock JV team 4-2 early on Sunday and a 7-4 victory over Western solidified their spot in the final versus Guelph. The Blues dropped an 8-2 decision to the Gryphons to also place second overall.

Source: Toronto Varsity Blues

Golden Hawks women finish third at Brock Invitational

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. (January 19, 2015) - The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks women's curling team earned themselves a third place finish at the Brock Invitational this past weekend.

Playing in their first and only event on the OUA circuit prior to the conference championships next month, the Hawks opened the bonspiel with a 3-0 record on the opening day. Competing in a pool with Waterloo, McMaster, Guelph and Brock's Freshmen team, Laurier defeated the Warriors 9-2, the Marauders 8-3 and Brock 6-5 on Saturday to sit in first place after Day 1.

The purple and gold opened Sunday with a showdown against the Gryphons with first place in the pool on the line. Unfortunately for skip Carly Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., and her team, Guelph walked away with a 7-5 win, sending Laurier to the third place game.

Taking on Western in their final match of the weekend, Laurier cruised to an easy 6-1 win in just four ends to finish third.

As a team, Laurier returns to action for the OUA Championships which get underway on February 19 in Guelph. Until then, two members of the purple and gold will be in action at provincial and national championships. Vice Kerilynn Mathers of Kitchener, Ont., opens up competition at the 2015 Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Monday, January 19 in Penetanguishene, while lead Chelsea Brandwood of Beamsville, Ont., is off to Newfoundland to represent Team Ontario at the 2015 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors.

Source: Laurier Golden Hawks

UOIT men finish third at Brock Invitational

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – With a 6-3 win over Carleton, the UOIT Ridgebacks men's curling team finished third at the Brock Invitational over the weekend.

Opening with a deuce in the first end of the third place game, UOIT and Carleton blanked the next two ends before the Ravens were forced to take one in the fourth. The Ridgebacks were forced to take a point in the fifth to go ahead 3-1.

Carleton scored two with hammer in the sixth to tie the game 3-3, but UOIT scored three in the seventh with the last rock to go ahead 6-3 heading into the final end. They ran the Ravens out of rocks to pick up the victory.

In round-robin play of the bonspiel the men went 3-1, with their lone loss coming against Toronto. They picked up 6-3 wins against Trent and Western before defeating the host Brock Badgers 5-4.

The Ridgebacks only allowed two or more points in three of 35 ends over the weekend, keeping their opponents to a single point in 11 ends.

On the women's side the Ridgebacks were 1-3 in pool play, but were competitive in each game.

They opened the bonspiel on Saturday with a 7-5 loss to Western and 5-4 loss to Toronto.

Sunday they fell 4-3 to Brock before defeating Trent 9-5. Throughout the event they didn't allow more than two points against in any end. In six ends of 30 played they allowed two points, holding opponents to a lone point in nine ends.

UOIT's next event is their bonspiel Feb. 7-8 at the Oshawa Golf and Curling Club. The OUA championship is Feb. 19-23 in Guelph.