Rams and Varsity Blues provide pair of upsets in OUA curling championship quarter-finals

OSHAWA, Ont. – There will be a new champion in Ontario University Athletics (OUA) women's curling.
 
There will actually be two new teams in the final and four new teams in the semifinals.
 
The defending champion Laurier Golden Hawks were defeated 7-6 on Sunday night by the Toronto Varsity Blues, while the undefeated Brock Badgers fell 6-5 to the Ryerson Rams.
 
Ryerson's lead came early in the game after holding the Badgers to one in the first end. Brock then strung together two with hammer, followed by steals of two and one to lead 5-1 at the fourth-end break.
 
The teams traded points before Brock scored their first deuce of the game to cut the lead to 6-4. In the eighth end Ryerson skip Maggie Macintosh faced two Badger rocks on her last shot, but eliminated one of them to advance her team to the semifinal after missing out on the playoffs last year.
 
Toronto's victory over Laurier came in a similar fashion as they held the defending champs to one in the first.
 
They themselves were forced to take just one in the second before stealing two to take a 3-1 lead. Laurier bounced back before the break to tie the game 3-3.
 
As if it was all part of the plan, Toronto had one stolen against them in the fifth before scoring deuces in the sixth and eighth end, while giving up two in seven en route to their 7-6 win and semifinal berth.

In the other semifinals the Laurentian Voyageurs defeated the Queen's Gaels 7-6 and the Carleton Ravens dropped the Guelph Gryphons 7-4. 

Toronto will now play Laurentian and Carleton faces Ryerson. 
 
Prior to the quarter-finals the women's tournament all-stars were presented. The Brock Badgers had skip Terri Weeks and lead Joanna Francolini named to the first team, while Marcia Richardson was named the second on the second team.
 
The Guelph Gryphons had a pair of second-team all-stars as skip Jestyn Murphy and lead Jacinda Schieck received the nod.
 
Rounding out the first-team all-stars were Carleton Ravens vice-skip Karen Sagle and second Sara Guy from the Laurentian Voyageurs. The final second-team all-star was vice-skip Nicole Titkai of the Ryerson Rams.
 
The men's quarter-finals are set for Monday morning at 9 a.m. with the two-time defending champion Laurier Golden Hawks being the only undefeated team through round-robin play. In their final game against the Lakehead Thunderwolves it looked like they might be in for their first loss as they gave up five in the first end. After a blank they rattled off 10 straight points to finish with a 7-0 record.
 
On Monday, they face the Carleton Ravens (4-3), who finished the round-robin on Sunday with a 7-3 victory over UOIT and a 5-2 loss to the Brock Badgers.
 
The other quarter-finals feature the McMaster Marauders (4-3) against the Toronto Varsity Blues (6-1), Brock Badgers (5-2) versus the Western Mustangs (5-2) and Queen's Gaels (6-1) playing the Waterloo Warriors (4-3).
 
There was little surprise in where these eight teams finished as they were all in playoff spots through five games as of Saturday evening.
 
Following the quarter-finals the semifinals for both men and women will take place at 1 p.m. All four teams will also play again at 5 p.m. in the gold and bronze medal games.
 
2017 OUA WOMEN'S ALL-STARS
 
FIRST TEAM
Skip – Terri Weeks • Brock Badgers
Vice – Karen Sagle • Carleton Ravens
Second – Sara Guy • Laurentian Voyageurs
Lead – Joanna Francolini • Brock Badgers
 
SECOND TEAM
Skip – Jestyn Murphy • Guelph Gryphons
Vice – Nicole Titkai • Ryerson Rams
Second – Marcia Richardson • Brock Badgers
Lead – Jacinda Schieck • Guelph Gryphons