Bolstered by fresh faces, Griffins head into ACAC Fall Regional with optimism

Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics

EDMONTON – The arrow is trending up on the MacEwan women's curling rink as they gun for a fourth Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference banner in the last nine years.

A season after failing to qualify for the ACAC championship, the Griffins are primed for a rebound after adding experienced junior competitive player Erin Wells (Fort McMurray) to a rink that includes four returning players.

They'll head into the opening competition of the season this weekend in St. Paul, AB with optimism.

"She's been a great addition," said head coach Tom Kitagawa of Wells, who will play third. "She comes with a bit of experience from playing junior competitive. (With us), she's found a very good spot at third."

Third-year Ashton Simard (Chauvin, AB) will return as the women's team skip, while third-year Andie Kurjata (Meadow Lake, SK) and second-year Sara Fraser (Leduc) – who was named an ACAC all-star last season – round out a team that has the potential to win it all.

"Ashton has quite a bit of experience, but we were missing was someone to play in that third position when Ashton's throwing a rock to make calls from inside the house," said Kitagawa. "I think (Erin's) brought us up another level again.

"This ladies team has the potential to win the provincial championship from what I've seen so far. We'll find out on the weekend."

Defending champion Concordia is set to be strong again, but beyond that, Kitagawa doesn't know until the games are played at the ACAC Fall Regional, hosted by Portage College.

MacEwan's women's team will open play at the St. Paul Curling Club on Friday with matches against Red Deer (2 p.m.) and Concordia (8 p.m.). On Saturday, they'll meet NAIT (9 a.m.) and Lakeland (Noon). And they'll close out the tourney on Sunday against Olds (9 a.m.) and U-Alberta-Augustana (Noon).

A team's record from the first regional and from the Winter Regional (Jan. 26-28 at Avonair Curling Club) will decide the top four teams going to the ACAC Championship Feb. 16-18 in Camrose.

"You have to win more than 50 per cent," said Kitagawa of this weekend's bonspiel. "I'm hoping the ladies can go 5-1. You never know when you're going to have a marginal game and the other team's going to have a superb game."

MacEwan won't have a men's team for a second-straight season due to lack of numbers.

"The three men we had on the mixed team are pretty good, but it wouldn't be enough to carry a men's team," said Kitagawa. "We didn't have enough players to even think about it. If you qualify for nationals, you have to have a fifth."

The Griffins' mixed team, however is back and aiming to improve on an ACAC bronze medal performance from last season. With skip Taitan Hagglund not back, second Rebecca Bartz will move into that role in 2017-18.

"She brings a lot of experience at being a skip," said Kitagawa. "On her junior ladies competitive team (where she plays with Taitan) … the coach has decided she calls a good game. Taitan throws maybe a little bit better rock, but Rebecca calls a good game, so she's now skipping that team. She brings a lot of experience into that position for us."

Newcomers Aidan Munro (Edmonton) and Andrea Bury (Mannville, AB) will slide into the third and second positions, respectively, while second-year Jordan Semen (Wainwright, AB) will play lead. Quintin Bishop (Wainwright, AB) and Hilary Charlie (Inuvik, NWT) are the team's alternates.

"Aidan comes in from junior competitive and he brings a lot of experience," said Kitagawa. "He's a fairly good shot maker.

"(Andrea's) actually a third-year student, but she was trying to keep her grades up, so she didn't curl the first two years. She again brings in quite a bit of experience and she's fairly skilled, so I'm pretty sure we'll be competitive with the mixed team, as well."

The Griffins mixed squad will open play on Friday against NAIT (5 p.m.) and Portage (8 p.m.). On Saturday, they'll meet Lakeland (Noon) and Olds (8 p.m.). And on Sunday, they'll finish up against Red Deer (Noon).

"The mixed is kind of a new entity with the second and third both new, but I'm hoping they can go 4-1," said Kitagawa. "You never know when some team's absolutely going to play light's out and you get beat."