WCURL | Voyageurs Remain Perfect After Day 2
The Laurentian Voyageurs women's curling team took part in the second day of the U SPORTS championship on Thursday with a pair of games against the UPEI Panthers and the Alberta Pandas.
Laurentian faced off against the Panthers bright and early Thursday morning at 8:30 AM in the first draw of day 2 of the competition. After blanking the first end Laurentian fell behind 2-0 after the Panthers were able to steal in the second end.
From there, though, Laurentian found their groove and began to play some quietly efficient curling. They were able to pick up a point in the next three consecutive ends to put them up 3-2 after 5. A nail-biter throughout saw UPEI tie it up 3-3 in the sixth followed by back to back blank ends in the seventh and eighth before UPEI picked up a steal in the ninth to go up 4-3 going into the tenth and final end.
With their backs against the wall, Laurentian picked up a much-needed point in the tenth to make it 4-4, forcing an extra end to decide the winner. Without the hammer, the odds were against the Voyageurs but in the end, they were able to pull through with a massive steal to win the game 5-4 in 11 ends and improve to 2-0 on the tournament.
After their thrilling win over UPEI, Laurentian's 4:30 opponent with the only other undefeated team remaining in the tournament, the Alberta Pandas.
The start was a repeat of the morning match as the Voyageurs quickly found themselves behind 2-0 after 2 ends before beginning to come up with key shots in the middle part of the match. After picking up a steal in the third, the two teams exchanged 2-point ends with hammer and by the end of the fifth end the score read Alberta 4, Laurentian 3.
It was the eighth end though, that was the defining moment for Laurentian. With the hammer and with work to do down 5-4, the Voyageurs took care of business coming up with a huge 3 points to take their first lead of the day going into the ninth. The Pandas countered with a point of their own in the ninth putting the score at 7-6 Voyageurs.
In the tenth, the match came down to the final shot as the Pandas were sitting with shot rock as Bella Lehtimaki Croisier, with the final shot, knocked out the lone Panda stone in the house, giving Laurentian a 4 point tenth end and an eventual lopsided 11-6 win over a very formidable Alberta team.
The Voyageurs have another two games scheduled for day 3 on Friday going first up against the Dalhousie Tigers at 8:30 am and rounding out the day with a 4:30 game against the TMU Bold.
Andrew Lemieux