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The two host teams were right on the button as far as expectations were concerned on the first day of the CIS championships at the Kelowna Curling Club.
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Corryn Brown of the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, one of the favourites in the eight-team women’s playdowns, reeled off a pair of convincing wins, while the UBC Okanagan men, skipped by Justin Nillson, dropped both of their matches on Sunday.
The TRU rink from Kamloops, considered the hosts because UBCO doesn’t have a curling team, opened with a 6-3 win over the University of New Brunswick and skip Samantha Crook. Brown and her team of lead Ashley Nordin, second Samantha Fisher and third Erin Pincott came back from a 3-2 deficit in the sixth end by pulling into a tie with a steal of one. They took the lead for the first time in the seventh with another steal. After giving up one to UNB in the eighth, Brown clinched the win with a deuce in the ninth.
Up against the University of Brandon Bobcats (skip Janelle Vachon) in the second draw on Sunday, Brown and her rinkmates scored a deuce in the second and fifth ends for a 5-2 lead and put the game away with a three in the eighth.
Their 2-0 record on the first day earned the Thompson Rivers foursome a tie for first place in the round-robin portion of the championship with Kristin Clarke and the Dalhousie University Tigers, who pulled off a major upset in defeating the defending champions from the University of Alberta.
Clarke, who this year won the world junior women’s championship as the third for Nova Scotia’s Mary Fay, defeated the Pandas 10-6 in a game conceded after nine ends.
The Pandas are led by Kelsey Rocque (2-1), a world junior champion at skip in 2014 and 2015. While the Tigers are a relatively new team, the Pandas come into the national tournament as a projected top finish.
Clarke added a second win in Sunday’s evening draw, defeating the Brock University Badgers of St. Catharines, Ont. 5-3.
In the only game to go a full 10 ends, a perfect hit and stay by Clarke earned her team the winning point on the final stone of the match. After the win, Clarke said that having a shot to win the game isn’t something that feels the least bit nerve-racking.
“It’s just really exciting, knowing that I have a shot that I’ve been able to make all year,” said the Tigers skip.“I just gotta take it like I’ve taken every other shot I throw — no different than any other shot.”
Asked about what it means to be in a position to follow up so quickly her world championship win with Fay, Clarke said:
“It feels absolutely unreal, it’s pretty cool. I mean, it’s been a great season, but just gotta come here, focus, and take it one shot at a time.”
Women’s play continued today with a 9 a.m. draw. Thompson Rivers is taking on the Guelph Gryphons, while Dalhousie is up against Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Chelsea Brandwood) of Waterloo, Ont.
The fourth and fifth round-robin draws both the men’s and women’s championships at the KCC are scheduled for 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, Nillson and his relatively inexperienced rink of lead Cam Mahler, second Luke Cooke and third Colton Costa had to concede both their games on Sunday — in an 11-5 loss to 2-0 Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks of Waterloo, Ont. (Aaron Squires) and a 9-5 defeat at the hands of the 2-0 University of Victoria Vikes (Corey Chester).
Nillson said that despite the team’s lack of experience at the CIS level, his team were “really psyched” and pumped about the opportunity to play against the best university teams in the country.
“We’re pumped, and I think we communicated really well actually, and that’s what we gotta build on in the next few games. We stayed on the same page as a unit, and that’s one of the big goals of the weekend, so that was a good showing for us.”
The UBCO foursome is playing the Brock Badgers in their third match in the 9 a.m. draw today, while they meet Sir Wilfrid Laurier at 2 p.m. and the Dalhousie Tigers at 7 p.m.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Victoria Vikes go into the second day of play tied for first (2-0) with Thomas Scoffin and the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
Round-robin play will continue with two draws on Tuesday while the semifinals for both men and women are set for Wednesday beginning at 9 a.m.
The championship and bronze-medal matches will be played beginning at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the KCC.
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