McMaster curling tosses up impressive result

Scott Hastie

Assistant Sports Editor

Over the past week, the McMaster Marauders curling team took a trip to Thompson Rivers University to compete against the best colleges and universities in the nation. After finishing with a silver medal at the OUA championships, McMaster qualified for the CIS/CCAA tournament and put together a respectable result.

Despite the curling team being in their sophomore season of competition, Mac finished 3-4 in national pool play – good enough for the fourth overall finish and highest result from an OUA team.

In their first match, Mac took on the silver medalist Alberta Pandas and narrowly lost with a 9-8 score. The young bunch rebounded quickly, though, defeating the host Thompson Rivers WolfPack in a 6-1 rout.

The Maroon and Grey’s third game saw the see-saw trend begin, as Mac ran into the gold-medal Manitoba Bisons. The CIS/CCAA champions bested Mac in a heated battle, with the Bisons winning 10-8 in the tenth end.

Similar to the previous day of competition, the Marauders handled their next opponent of the day. The University of Prince Edward Island Panthers dug themselves a 6-1 hole before storming back. Mac weathered the comeback attempt and ended Day Two of the tournament with a 7-6 victory.

Day Three saw the highlight of the young program as the Marauders defeated the OUA champion Western Mustangs. It only took McMaster seven ends to dethrone their rivals and earn revenge from the OUA championship loss from a few weeks prior. With one game left, Mac stood with a 3-2 record.

However, the Marauders would find themselves on the wrong side of revenge in their match against the Guelph Gryphons. Mac handled the Gryphons in the OUA semifinals, but the Gryphons had the last laugh after taking a quick start in the national game to send the Marauders back to a .500 mark.

The tournament came to a bitter close as the Saint Mary’s Huskies beat the Maroon and Grey in a one point nail-biter. It took ten ends, but the AUS representative proved victorious.

Although McMaster narrowly missed out on grabbing some hardware for the trophy case in the David Braley Athletic Centre, the sky is the limit for Mac’s curling team.