"Golden" Hawks -- Laurier wins OUA Curling Championships for second straight year

GUELPH, ON - The 2016 OUA Curling Championships ended the same way the 2015 version did...with the Laurier Golden Hawks on top on both the men's and women's sides. For a second straight year, the Hawks completed a 'double gold' performance and are off to the CIS Championships (March 20-23) in Kelowna, B.C. Joining Laurier on the men's side at nationals will be Waterloo and Brock. On the women's side, Brock and Guelph will head west alongside Laurier. The event will be hosted by the UBC Okanagan Heat at the Kelowna Curling Club.

FINAL PLAYOFF BRACKET

MEN'S GOLD MEDAL GAME
Laurier   10
Waterloo 1

MEN'S BRONZE MEDAL GAME
Brock    7
Queen's 3

WOMEN'S GOLD MEDAL GAME
Laurier 6
Brock  4

WOMEN'S BRONZE MEDAL GAME
Guelph   7
Western 4

Men's teams heading to CIS Championships
1. Laurier
2. Waterloo
3. Brock

Women's teams heading to CIS Championships
1. Laurier
2. Brock
3. Guelph

2016 OUA All-Stars (Men's):

FIRST TEAM

Skip - Aaron Squires, Laurier

Vice - Alex Cormier, Queen's

Second - Decebal Michaud, Queen's

Lead - Fraser Reid, Laurier

SECOND TEAM

Skip - Pascal Michaud, Queen's

Vice - Jordan Potter, Lakehead

Second - Spencer Nuttall, Laurier

Lead - Connor Lawes, Queen's

Coach of the Year - Matt Wilkinson, Guelph

2016 OUA All-Stars (Women's):

FIRST TEAM

Skip: Chelsea Brandwood, Laurier

Vice: Brenda Holloway, Laurier

Second: Evie Fortier, Laurier

Lead: Megan Arnold, Laurier

SECOND TEAM

Skip: Terri Weeks, Brock

Vice: Sarah Throop, Queen's

Second: Lauren Calvert, Brock

Lead: Jacinda Schieck, Guelph

Coach of the Year: Ken Sandham, Brock

Completing what was a dominant five days of action on the ice, the Golden Hawks men's team defeated the Waterloo Warriors 10-1 in the finals while the women held off the Brock Badgers 6-4 to once again capture double gold. 

"It's definitely pretty special," commented Laurier men's skip Aaron Squires on his team's victory. "It doesn't happen very often but it was our goal coming in and we're pretty proud that we were able to make it happen." 

"I'm feeling pretty good," added women's skip Chelsea Brandwood. "You know, we did it last year and I'm so happy to be a part of the team and do it again this year. Proud of the boys, proud of our team for going undefeated, both of us; just a great week overall." 

After both teams completed perfect runs through round robin play over the first four days of the championships, the Hawks opened the day with their semifinal matchups where a trip to the gold medal game and the CIS Championship was on the line. 

The men's semifinal saw the Hawks, who also featured vice Richard Krell of London, Ont., second Spencer Nuttall of Toronto, lead Fraser Reid of Ancaster, Ont., and alternate Russell Cuddie of London, Ont., battle the Brock Badgers in one of their toughest tests of the week. Holding a 4-1 lead after four ends, the Badgers came back with a critical score of two in the fifth end to make it a one-point game.

Laurier would respond with another score of two in the sixth end before holding the Badgers to just one in the seventh. 

Entering the eighth end, the Hawks simply needed to run Brock out of rocks, which they successfully did as for the eighth straight game, Squires, a native of St. Thomas, Ont., wasn't forced to throw his final rock. 

The women's semifinal saw the Hawks, who also featured vice Brenda Holloway of Mississauga, Ont., second Evie Fortier of Ottawa, lead Megan Arnold of Waterloo, Ont., and alternate Riley Sandham of St. Catharines, Ont., take on the Western Mustangs for the second straight match after defeating Western 6-3 in their final round robin match.

Like their first meeting, the Hawks gained control on the Mustangs early and never relinquished. After scoring one in the second end, Laurier proceeded to steal two in the third, one in the fourth and one in the fifth to build a commanding 5-0 lead. 

Western would get on the board with one in the sixth but a score of two in the seventh for the purple and gold induced handshakes as Laurier advanced to their sixth final in seven years. 

With both teams having guaranteed their berth at the CIS Championships, the Hawks turned their attention to repeating their golden sweep from a year ago.

Laurier's men's team took to the ice against their crosstown rivals, the Waterloo Warriors, a showdown that featured schools who had won three of the past four OUA Championships. 

These two programs had met in the final game of the round robin in a close match that saw Laurier earn a 4-2 victory. However, this time around, it was a completely different story.

After forcing the Warriors to take just one point in the second end, Laurier took over the match. With the hammer in the third, the Hawks put a four-spot up on the scoreboard then proceeded to pick up steals of three in both the fourth and fifth ends. That was more than enough for Waterloo to concede as the Hawks won their second straight OUA title and eighth overall. 

"It was definitely a goal all along to win the OUA and have a good shot at winning the CIS," said Squires of his team's mindset coming into this season, the fifth and final one for all four starting team members. "We're definitely proud but at the time we still have the next part of our job to do and that's to win CIS so that's what we're looking forward to."

In the women's final, the Hawks took on the Brock Badgers in a rematch of last year's final. 

Unlike many of their matches this week, the Hawks found themselves on the wrong side of the rocks for much of the early stretches of the game. Laurier trailed 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3 at various points before the purple and gold managed a key score of two in the seventh end to take a 5-4 lead. 

Needing to hold Brock to no more than one point to force extra ends, or steal to earn the victory, Laurier got themselves set up nicely with a rock on the four foot early in the final end. 

On her last shot, Brandwood's rock would slide a little deep, giving the Badgers a glimmer of life as they looked to make a double takeout to score one and send the game to extras. However, Brock's final rock overcurled and was unable to move the Laurier rock in the four foot, giving the Hawks a steal of one and their fifth OUA Championship in the last six years. 

"It was tough," said Brandwood, a native of Beamsville, Ont., of the final. "We got a few bad breaks but we found a way to battle back in to it. We just believed that we were going to get some misses and we knew we could make more shots than we were making so we just kept playing and battle back through it."