Tigers bring home U SPORTS curling silver medals

The Dalhousie Tigers men’s and women’s curling teams won U SPORTS silver medals on Sunday at the 2023 U SPORTS/Curling Canada Championships in Sudbury, Ontario.

The bonspiel kicked off on Wednesday with both teams winning their opening games. The women’s team of Grace McCusker, Lindsey Burgess, Allyson MacNutt, Natasha Fortin and skip Marin Callaghan, beat the McMaster Marauders 9-5. The men’s team beat AUS rivals the UNB REDS 9-3.

Adam MacEachern’s team of Caelan McPherson, David McCurdy, and Ethan Young, went on to beat the Queens Gaels, Saint Mary’s, Alberta, and Laurentian to finish the round robin 5-2 and head into the playoffs with the second seed.

Callaghan’s team finished the round robin in fourth place with a 4-3 record and wins over TMU Bold, Alberta, and UPEI in addition to the win over McMaster.

Interestingly, both teams would face, and beat, the Laurentian Voyageurs in their semifinal games. The women had a comfortable 10-6 win in nine ends over the Voyageurs, while the men topped Laurentian 5-4 in an extra end.

In the men’s gold medal game, the Tigers faces a tough Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks team that had handed them one of their two losses earlier in the week. It was also a re-match of the 2022 FISU World University Games qualifier final that saw the Tigers win 8-5 and earn the right to represent Canada at the FISU games in Lake Placid and of the last U SPORTS national championship in 2020 that Laurier won 8-5.

In the 2023 edition of this budding rivalry, the Golden Hawks got out to an early 6-1 lead and never really looked back. Despite a three-spot in the nineth end, the Tigers fell 9-7 to the Golden Hawks.

On the women’s side the gold medal game featured a re-match with the Alberta Pandas. This game was much tighter than the men’s final, with two blank ends and the teams trading singles for much of the game. It came down to a 4-4 tie in the final end with the Tigers coming home with hammer. Unfortunately, the Pandas stole a single point in the last end to win the game 5-4.

McCucker was named an first team all-Canadian while Callaghan was named a second team all-Canadian. Burgess brough home the fair play award.

On the men’s side, coach David William was awarded coach of the year.