Laurier women’s curling keep playoff dreams alive

Photo by Andreas Patsiaouros
Photo by Andreas Patsiaouros

KELOWNA, B.C. — If the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks want to make it to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport semifinals on Wednesday, they’re fighting an uphill battle.
The Hawks dropped their first two draws of the day Monday to the Dalhousie Tigers and the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack before beating the Guelph Gryphons to end off their draws. After day two, the Hawks drop to an overall record of 1-3. Currently, the rink sits in sixth place in the national standings and are aiming for that coveted fourth-place spot to book their ticket to Wednesday’s semifinal draw.

“We just don’t quite have the consistency right now, and we don’t have the right side of the inch right now,” said head coach Jason Rice. “Even in terms of a little bit of luck, it’s not quite going our way right now.”

“We have a shot for two and it picks.”

Rice said after the game against the Wolfpack, the team had a good meeting. Even though the frustration is there, the team can put it into perspective and know that they are still in the playoff hunt, making the game against Guelph a must-win.

The Hawks struggled to gain draw weight for most of the day, with many of their shots either coming up light or picking at the wrong time. Laurier skip Chelsea Brandwood was visibly frustrated with the way the games were all turning out. Rice said the team just has to keep believing on what got the rink to nationals instead of worrying about not hitting draw weight if they look to succeed.

“In general, ice conditions are quite good. Speed tends to maintain quite well over the course of ten ends,” Rice said. “We’re getting caught in a couple spots there, whether it’s not quite knowing the ice in that specific spot or a combination of not having the right weight to execute the shot.”

“It’s cost us in making some half shots, where we could apply some pressure to the opposition.”

The Hawks pulled it together in their game against the Gryphons, picking up a triple in the first end and taking another three in the fifth end to make the score 7-4 in favour of Laurier. The rink found their stride and picked up a win against a familiar Ontario University Athletics opponent.

But even though the Hawks were able to keep their playoff dreams alive with the win, they still have a tough order when they play the Alberta Pandas. Currently, the Pandas sit tied for first place with the Wolfpack and features skip Kelsey Rocque, a regular on the Grand Slam circuit. The Hawks finish off the round robin with a game against the Brock Badgers.

Draws are at 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. eastern time respectively. Viewers can follow along on Twitter via cordsports and check out The Cord’s live blog.

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