Reds Less Than Content
"We came up flat," Jack Smeltzer
(FREDERICTON, NB) The 2019 U SPORTS/Curling Canada national university curling championships came to an end Tuesday, with the Laurentian Voyageurs and Carleton Ravens winning the women’s and men’s titles respectively.
Laurentian beat Brock 7-5 to win the women’s championship.
Carleton downed Memorial 10-4 to take the men’s title.
The host UNB Reds were shut-out of the medal round.
The Reds men’s team finished the round-robin portion of the tournament with a 3-and-4 record, while the women went 1-and-6.
“We had a lot of fun, despite the results,” said Justine Comeau, skip of UNB’s women’s team. “We’d have liked to have done better and represent the university better.”
While the Reds women didn’t experience the success they’d have liked as a team, one member of the team was recognized for her play during the championship.
Lead Jillian Crandall was named a 2nd Team All-Canadian.
“There’s so many other good student-athletes here, especially in the lead position, but I did think I played pretty well this weekend and I’m proud of this,” said Crandall. “I think that when it came down to it, I was able to make the shots that they called in the certain situations where it was needed. So, I think that that was a huge factor. I always think of my shots, if they weren’t perfectly made, that they at least were almost perfect, which helps out the team.”
The Reds men’s team scored wins over Lethbridge, Memorial and Western.
Coming off a bronze medal performance at the 2018 U SPORTS Championships, UNB had been hoping for more.
“I feel if we’d done this last year, we’d have been content, but with how well we did last year, and being the host team, we came up flat,” said Reds skip Jack Smeltzer. “We weren’t consistent enough. We had game plans and we executed them, but just not enough against some really good teams.”
Comeau too recognized that the Reds teams were competing in fields of very good teams.
“Seven of eight teams had people that represented their province at junior nationals,” said Comeau. “On three teams you had national champions, so this is pretty tough competition.”