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Voyageurs capture university women's curling crown

Voyageurs win first national title of any kind since the Mulroney era.

THUNDER BAY -- Krysta Burns hadn’t yet been born the last time the Laurentian Voyageurs brought home a national championship of any kind.

The drought ended on Wednesday at the Fort William Curling Club.

Burns, 20, skipped the Voyageurs to a 7-4 win over Lakehead University’s Hailey Beaudry rink, breaking open a 2-2 game with three in the sixth end that left the host squad playing from behind the rest of the way.

A semi-finalist at the 2017 Canadian Junior Women’s Curling Championship, where she lost to Alberta’s Kristen Streifel, Burns and teammates Laura Masters, Sara Guy and Megan Smith came through when it counted most.

“It feels pretty good. It was a bit of whirlwind of a week. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but it’s great to finish on a high.

The last Laurentian school to win a national title was the women’s basketball team in 1991, a stretch of 26 years without a banner.

It’s pretty uplifting for the Sudbury school, she said.

“Obviously we’re super proud to have won for Laurentian and I hope everyone there is just as proud of us,” Burns said. “We heard some of the classes were watching it today while it was being live-streamed. We’re just super happy to have been able to bring this home.”

Beaudry’s team struggled in the back half of the match, starting in the fifth when she was forced to throw her final stone through the rings, not willing to risk disaster sitting shot rock, but surrounded by seven Laurentian rocks.

The Thunderwoves, whose team includes lead Erin Tomalty, second Emily Cooney and third Kendra Lemieux, slipped up again in the sixth, and without the hammer it proved costly. After Beaudry missed a double takeout trying to limit the damage, Burns was left with an open draw for three and took control of the championship, up 5-2.

“The sixth end definitely was the game-changer. We were trying to play catch-up to them for the rest of it. They’re a strong team,” Beaudry said. “I think we just had a couple of misses that were crucial. I want to say we flashed a hit in that end that we needed to make.”

Still, for a team not really expected to have much of an impact in a far more experienced field, silver still feels like a win, Beaudry said.

“A silver medal is pretty awesome,” she said. “We played really great the past two days. We knew we just had to focus and make our shots … and we did that so we could be in this gold-medal game. Unfortunately we didn’t come out on top of the scoreboard, but we played really well and we played as a team.

“That’s what matters.”

Streifel, undefeated in the round-robin, lost to Lakehead in the semifinal earlier in the day, but captured bronze for Alberta with a 9-2 win over Dalhousie’s Kristin Clarke.

On the men’s side, the Memorial Sea-Hawks, skipped by Adam Boland, captured their second U Sports title in six years, doubling Alberta’s Thomas Scoffin 8-4.

The University of Prince Edward Island took third with a 7-6 win over the Regina Cougars.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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