Championships Curling

Curling

U SPORTS Curling Championships: Day 3

18 Mar 2023, 01:50 PM 18 March 2023, 01:50 PM

U SPORTS Staff

Day three of the U SPORTS/Curling Canada Championships saw everyone hit the ice twice once again as teams jockeyed for position with the round robin portion of the Championship passing the halfway point.

On the women’s side, it was two different ends of the spectrum as a morning draw that saw almost every game come down to the final stone gave way to an afternoon draw that featured predominantly lopsided affairs while the men’s draws seemed to follow the same storylines. After it all, no team has officially clinched a playoff position while every team is still mathematically in the picture.

In the first game off the ice in the morning, UPEI scored back-to-back deuces in the eighth and ninth ends to open up what was an extremely tight affair, downing Victoria 6-3. On the strength of a deuce, a three-ender, and a four-ender, TMU outlasted Alberta 10-9. Laurentian waited until the final end to put up the games first crooked number but made it count, beating Dalhousie 5-4 as a result of the deuce. The final game was easily the most dramatic as Memorial stole a single in ten to force an extra end and proceeded to steal the win away from McMaster, 7-6.

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In the afternoon draw, Dalhousie battled back from an early deficit to Alberta to tie things late and proceeded to steal a single in nine and three more in ten to earn a 9-5 victory. After opening up a 4-0 lead, Memorial used a massive 6-point eighth end to force early handshakes, downing UPEI 11-2. McMaster essentially ended Victoria’s playoff hopes as, on the strength of a pair of three-enders, they defeated the Vikes 9-3. In the final game on the ice, it was TMU handing Laurentian their first lost of the championship with a 6-5 extra-end victory.

On the men’s side in the afternoon draw, Laurentian picked up a steal of two in the fifth end and rode that to a 7-5 win over UNB for their third straight win. Dalhousie used a string of three deuces in a row in the sixth, seventh, and eighth ends to springboard them to an 8-4 win over Alberta while, in the battle of two winless teams, it was Calgary who opened the game with a steal of two and never looked back, downing Saint Mary’s 10-5. In the rematch of the OUA title game, Laurier had a textbook game, answering every Queen’s single with two or more of their own en route to a 10-7 win.

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In the evening draw, Saint Mary’s finally got into the win column as they edged in front at the wire, scoring one in the tenth to beat Alberta 7-6 in a back and forth contest. Queen’s flipped the script from the afternoon and scored multiple points in four different ends as they beat UNB 9-4 while, on the strength of a big four-ender in the fifth, Calgary handed Dalhousie their first loss, 8-3. In the final game of the night, Laurier was clinical once again, scoring four deuces in the game while holding Laurentian to singles on three different occasions for an 8-5 win.

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