(Windsor, N.S) The 2022 Subway Atlantic University Sport Curling Championships began Thursday at the Windsor Curling Club. The event, pushed back in the calendar due to the pandemic, featured teams from five institutions and three provinces all vying for their respective crowns in both women’s and men’s divisions. The women’s field was made up of University of New Brunswick (UNB) REDS, Mount Allison University (MTA) Mounties, Dalhousie University Tigers and Saint Mary’s University (SMU) Huskies, while the men’s lineup saw Memorial University (MUN) Sea-Hawks join Dalhousie, SMU and UNB.
Opening draw action saw only a single game on the women’s side as MTA took on UNB; the Dal versus SMU contest was awarded to Tigers 1-0 as the Huskies were unable to play due to a conflict.
The UNB REDS capitalized in the first end keeping lots of rocks in play and when the dust settled, they scored four to open the contest 4-0. After a force in the second the Mounties stole another in three to trail 4-2 at the break. The fifth end saw MTA steal another two to tie the match 4-4 with three ends to play.
The REDS broke open the contest in the sixth end as they scored five to lead 9-4 with two ends to play. The Mounties, ever determined, scored two in seven to trail 9-6 coming home. As the Mounties tried to keep rocks in play to close the gap in the final end, the REDS managed to run them out of rocks making the final 9-6.
The men’s draw opened with UNB taking on SMU while Dalhousie was matched against MUN.
After a blank first end, the Tigers were the first to the board scoring two in the second to go up 2-0. The Sea-Hawks, not to be outdone, would put a two spot up in the third end to tie the contest 2-2. A MUN steal of one in the fourth had them leading 3-2 at the break.
Dalhousie answered that end in the fifth scoring a deuce to re-take the lead 4-3. In the sixth the Sea-Hawks took back the lead with another deuce to lead 5-4. In this back-and-forth contest Dalhousie scored one in the seventh end to tie the score and then stole one in the final end to win the match 6-5.
In the second men’s match, the Huskies opened the first with a pair and quickly followed that with a steal in the second to take the lead 3-0. The REDS found their stride in the third scoring two and cutting the lead to 3-2. The SMU squad with hammer scored a big three to hit the fourth end break up 6-2. The fifth end saw UNB pick up a single to narrow the margin to 6-3. The sixth end proved too much for the REDS, SMU hit an open draw for three to take the match in a final of 9-3.
All teams are back in action Friday as the Championships continue with draws two and three of the round-robin. Live end scoring can be found on the Curling Canada website at www.curling.ca