A winning day for Team Canada in Italy

Team Canada men and women had a perfect day at the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy, as the University of Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher and Wilfrid Laurier University’s Laura Crocker cruised to victory in Day 4 round robin play. Bottcher and his team of Michael Lizmore (third), Brad Thiessen (second), Karrick Martin (lead) and Parker Konschuh (alternate), with coach Rob Krepps, scored seven straight points in the first four ends to defeat Italy’s Marco Pascale 7-1 in morning action at the Baselga di Pine Ice Stadium. In the evening game against the Czech Republic’s Lukas Klima, Bottcher held his opponents to singles while scoring three points in the second end and three more in the eighth on the way to an 8-5 victory. Bottcher now sits at the top of the men’s leaderboard still tied with Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson, both with 6-0 records. Team Canada will meet USA’s Chris Plys (3-3) in its only game on Monday. On the women’s side, Crocker put four straight losses behind her to overpower China’s Xue Yi Wang 10-2 in just seven ends. Crocker, with third Sarah Wilkes, second Jennifer Gates, lead Cheryl Kreviazuk, alternate Breanne Meakin and coach Garry Coderre, scored five points in the fifth end and stole another two in the sixth to take a commanding 9-2 lead. The Chinese gave up another point on a Canadian steal in the seventh before conceding. The win moves Team Canada women into seventh place with a 2-4 record. On Monday, Crocker and her squad will face USA’s Cory Christensen (1-5) and Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura (3-3), aiming for two wins to keep Canada’s playoff hopes alive. Follow Team Canada on the Canadian Interuniversity Sport websites (English and French) here: https://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/winter/2013/index https://francais.cis-sic.ca/landing/index Access the 2013 Winter Universiade/Trentino 2013 website here: https://www.universiadetrentino.org/ About the Winter Universiade The Winter Universiade is a biennial international multi-sport event open to competitors who are at least 17 and less than 28 years of age as of January 1 in the year of the Games. Participants must be full-time students at a post-secondary institution (university, college, CEGEP) or have graduated from a post-secondary institution in the year preceding the event. The competition program of the Trentino Universiade includes alpine skiing, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey (women & men), nordic combined, ski jumping, snowboarding and short track speed skating. About Canadian Interuniversity Sport Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 55 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on: Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CIS_SIC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cissports YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/universitysport