GUELPH, Ont. — It came down to the final end, but the Wilfrid Laurier women’s curling team got it done — despite being a little lucky.
The Hawks went into the semifinal against the Guelph Gryphons with an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship final berth, and a potential Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship berth in Regina, Saskatchewan.
And after leading 4-2 coming home in the eighth end, Laurier got lucky on a final missed shot to steal the game 5-2 and head to the afternoon’s final.
“I feel great,” third-year skip Carly Howard said. “Unfortunately I wanted to make the shot for the win to go to nationals, but whatever, I made a decent shot in my last one and it ended up working out. So I feel really great.”
Laurier jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first end on a failed blank attempt. Guelph tied it up in the second before Laurier blanked the third end.
After exchanging points throughout the ensuing ends, it came down to the eighth end. Laurier was up by two, but after Howard missed her first shot for the potential win, it gave the Gryphons a chance to put two in the house.
However on a great shot by Howard on her last, she sat on the four foot to force Guelph to try the takeout.
But the shot wouldn’t curl and went wide, giving the Hawks the win and the berth to the CIS championships.
“Once I missed that shot, I thought it was done,” Howard said. “[Guelph’s skip] had been making those hits all game. And out of her hand, it just hung out there, which it usually does.”
With the 5-2 win, Laurier will play in the 1 p.m. final Monday afternoon for the OUA banner and a higher seed in the CIS championship.
“The goal for the team is to play well,” Howard said. “We’re relaxed now, we made it to nationals and now we just need to win the big one. We’re just going to play like we can, we played amazing today, so keep that up.”
