Banner Season: Semifinalists set after upsets send shock waves through knockout round field
Guelph, Ont. (via Guelph Gryphons) – Playoff action got underway on Day 4 of the 2020 OUA Curling Championships at the Guelph Curling Club.
The curling club was buzzing with excitement as all eight quarterfinals were on display Sunday night. Fans packed the Guelph Curling Club to cheer on the athletes. Two draws required an extra end in what was a memorable night at the 2020 conference championship event.
On the women’s side, the fourth-seeded Guelph Gryphons won in the extra end taking out the top seed in Pool B, the Waterloo Warriors, 5-4.
“The girls played the best game they played all week and I think we proved we belong in the final four,” said Head Coach Byron Scott. “We played a very clean game against them and matched them shot for shot. We capitalized on the one miss they made early on to get our deuce, which was the only deuce of the game.”
Laurier edged out Toronto with a two-point eighth end to win 5-4.
In other women’s quarterfinal action, Queen’s took out the defending U SPORTS champions Laurentian 5-3 with a two-point steal in the eighth end while undefeated McMaster beat Carleton 5-2.
Skip, Mary Fay from Queen’s explained, “Our team kept fighting. Laurentian is a great team and they had us on our toes the whole time.”
“Our team is really close off the ice as well as on the ice and we have really been playing on our positive team dynamic. Our communication is great and that atmosphere of support has been really helpful for us,” said skip Madelyn Warriner from McMaster.
In men’s quarterfinal action, Guelph, the fourth-seed in Pool C took out the top seed in pool D McMaster 9-6 with a one-point eighth end to seal the upset.
“Keeping it close was our strategy and it ended up working out for us,” said Guelph skip Dylan Niepage.
Brock won in the extra end taking out the top seed in pool C and defending OUA and U SPORTS Champions Carleton 8-7 in a thrilling matchup.
Coach Jordan Thin of Brock on the upset victory noted, “We’re going to enjoy it for the next couple of hours and then we’re going to think about tomorrow. We are going to focus really hard on the things we were successful at.”
Other men’s quarter-final results saw the University of Toronto beat Lakehead 6-2 while Laurier defeated Queen’s 8-4.
Laurier skip Matt Hall said, “It was going to come down to who played better in the last two ends. We were lucky to get a couple misses out of them in the seventh end and we were able to capitalize on it to get the W.”
Semifinal action on Day 5 of the championships starts at 9:30 a.m.
Medal games hit the ice at 2 p.m. Stay up to date with all the scores and standings here.