Alberta rinks unbeaten after first day of CIS/CCA Curling Nationals

Both rinks representing the University of Alberta are unbeaten after the opening day of play at the 2013 CIS/CCA Curling Nationals in Kamloops. The Alberta Golden Bears, skipped by Brendan Bottcher, and the Pandas, skipped by Kelsey Rocque, won both their matches. On the men’s side, Alberta is tied with the University of Waterloo’s Jake Walker at 2-0 in the standings. Alberta beat the Trent University Excalibur (Mike Bryson) 10-4 in the first game and took the Acadia Axemen (Robert Mayhew) 7-4 in the afternoon draw. Waterloo disposed of the Dalhousie Tigers (Lee Buott) 9-3 in the morning draw and followed it up in the afternoon with an 8-5 decision over the Carleton University Ravens (Brett Lyon-Hatcher) 8-5. On the women’s side, Alberta opened up with a 9-8 extra end win over the McMaster University Marauders (Ginger Coyle) and then came away with a 10-3 drubbing of the UPEI Panthers (Veronica Smith) in the afternoon. Alberta is tied with Manitoba’s Breanne Meakin with two wins and no defeats. Manitoba had victories over the Guelph University Gryphons (Jaimee Gardner) 8-5 and St. Mary’s University Huskies (Sara Spafford) 7-3. Four rinks on the women’s side are tied for third with a win and a loss—St Mary’s, Guelph, McMaster and Thompson Rivers University WolfPack (Tiffany Krausher). Western and UPEI are winless in two starts. The WolfPack scored two in the second and four in the ninth en route to an 8-5 win over UPEI in the opening draw and then fell 6-1 to McMaster in the afternoon draw. In men’s play, Acadia, Dalhousie , Carleton and Thompson Rivers University WolfPack are tied at 1-1 in the standings. Manitoba (Steen Sigardson) and Trent University are winless in two starts. The WolfPack opened up scoring three times in the seventh but fell to Acadia 8-5. They followed that up with a 10-7 extra-end decision victory over Trent University, Thompson Rivers scoring three times in that 11th end. Action continues on Thursday (March 21) with draws at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. PDT. Round Robin play winds up Saturday morning (March 23) with the championship final set for 2 p.m. PDT on Sunday (March 24). Results, schedule and team information are available at https://www.curling.ca/championships/university/