Griffins women's rink off to 1-1 start after opening day at CCAA nationals
MacEwan Athletics
LEDUC – The MacEwan Griffins women's curling team is right in the mix after Day 1 of the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship on Saturday at the Leduc Rec Centre.
MacEwan's women's rink of skip Ashton Simard, third Erin Wells, second Andie Kurjata, lead Sara Fraser and alternate Hilary Charlie hammered Holland College 12-3 in the late-night draw to pull to 1-1, tied for third in the standings.
Earlier, they lost a barn-burner/heartbreaker to cross-town rival NAIT, 6-5 in the tournament's opening draw on Saturday afternoon.
Against Holland College, the Griffins seized control of the match early with steals in three consecutive ends to build a 5-0 advantage through four and never let the foot off the gas after that.
Holland had a brief glimmer of hope in the fifth, scoring two, but MacEwan hit right back with three and then added four in the eighth to force an early handshake line.
The Griffins shot a sizzling 83 per cent as a team in the evening match (compared to 57 per cent for Holland). Third Erin Wells – a rookie at the CCAA nationals – dramatically improved her play from Draw 1 to 2, going from 57 per cent against NAIT to a team-leading 91 per cent, lights out, against Holland.
Earlier in the day, the NAIT match was conservative early as the teams traded two-enders before settling into a single takeout strategy that went back and forth through to the seventh. That's when the Ooks had a draw for two that sailed through the house.
MacEwan took advantage of the turn of momentum, junking up the rings in the eighth and scoring three on a draw by Simard with her final stone. Up 5-3, they seemed on their way to a win before NAIT struck back to tie it with a two-end ninth.
The Griffins still had the hammer coming home, but NAIT had shot stone well-fortified and Simard's final shot wrecked on a guard to give up the game-winning point on a steal.
On Sunday, MacEwan will face unbeaten Niagara at 9 a.m. and Fleming at 5 p.m.
They will continue the round-robin on Monday with matches against Camosun at 1 p.m. and Red Deer College at 9 p.m. They wrap up round-robin action against Fanshawe on Tuesday at 9 a.m.
The top four teams qualify for Tuesday's semifinals (7:30 p.m.) with the medal matches scheduled for Wednesday (noon).
