Bottcher is playoff bound at 2013 Winter Universiade

Brendan Bottcher and his team from the University of Alberta finished off the round robin in winning form and are headed for the semifinals at the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy. Despite a morning loss to Switzerland’s Mario Freiberger, Bottcher and his team of Michael Lizmore (third), Brad Thiessen (second), Karrick Martin (lead) and Parker Konschuh (alternate), with coach Rob Krepps, had already qualified for the playoffs before the final game, thanks to their 6-2 record. The morning game at the Baselga di Pine Ice Stadium featured multiple stolen ends. The Canadians gave up three in the first end, but scored a deuce in the second and stole three more singles to lead 5-3 at the break. Freiberger came back with a single in the sixth, then stole five more points over the next three ends for the 9-5 Swiss win. In the final round robin game against Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson on Tuesday night, Bottcher and his squad served notice they were more than ready to take on the previously undefeated leaders. The Canadians led 6-0 after the three ends. They allowed the Swedes to take their deuce in four, then hit back with four more in the fifth for a 10-2 lead at the break. Eriksson was able to score one in the sixth before conceding the 10-3 Canadian victory. With the win, Canada (7-2) finishes the round robin in second place behind Sweden (8-1) and advances to the men’s semifinal on Thursday. On the women’s side, Laura Crocker’s playoff hopes were crushed by a 9-5 loss to Korea’s Ji Sun Kim in the final game of the women’s round robin. Trailing 6-1 at the fifth-end break, Crocker and her Wilfrid Laurier University team of third Sarah Wilkes, second Jennifer Gates, lead Cheryl Kreviazuk, alternate Breanne Meakin and coach Garry Coderre, battled back with three points in the sixth and a steal in the seventh, but the Koreans held off the challenge. The Team Canada women finish the round robin in sixth place with a 4-5 record. Undefeated Anna Sidorova of Russia qualifies at the top of the standings, followed by Switzerland’s Michele Jaeggi (7-2), Great Britain’s Hannah Fleming (6-3) and Korea’s Kim (6-3). 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