February 21, 2009
CANADA IMPROVES TO 5-0 IN WOMEN'S CURLING AT 24TH WINTER UNIVERSIADE
HARBIN, China - Canada's female curlers continue to lead the way at the 24th Winter Universiade in Harbin, China, with skip Hollie Nicol of Markham, Ont., and her Wilfrid Laurier University teammates picking up a pair of wins Saturday to preserve their unblemished record.
With victories over Sweden and Poland on the third day of play at the Hei Longjiang Skating Gym, Canada ran their record to 5-0 and are tied with China atop the leaderboard at the midpoint of the competition.
Canada's opening draw on Saturday saw Nicol's team steal multiple points in the seventh and eighth ends, paving the way to a 10-4 win over Stina Viktorsson and her Swedish side.
"To be fair, it was a much closer game that the score indicated," noted Canadian second Danielle Inglis of Kleinburg, Ont. "She had a couple of bad breaks late in the game that weren't necessarily a result of a bad shot. If she draws a better fate on either of the last rocks in those two ends, it's a much different game."
Canada's late game was against a relative neophyte in the international curling waters. Poland isn't known for their prowess in the sport's inner circles, and the Canadian's opponents played a very cautious game in hopes of eking out a major upset, and ended up prevailing 7-5.
"We didn't play all that well against Poland, who really like to keep things pretty clean," said Nicol. "We had a tough time creating chances because there weren't very many rocks in play, but sometimes that's how it goes. It's another 'W' and we move on from there."
Canada's women have endured some notoriously slow starts at major competitions, but Nicol and the rest of the Laurier four are proving themselves to be richly deserving of their impressive record in the standings.
"We dropped our first three games at the 2008 CIS championship last March and then had to fight back from behind to eventually win it all," said Nicol. "For us to be playing from in front is a welcome change."
"I think you want to come out at least 1-1 on these two-draw days. If you split the long days and win more than you lose on the single draw days, you should be somewhere near the playoffs at the end of the week. We've got a lot of our tougher games yet to come. We've got Great Britain, China and even the Czech Republic is having a pretty good week thus far. We knew we needed to get off to a good start in order to be in the best position when we faced those bigger tests later in the week."
Team Canada (5-0) will take to the ice again on Sunday afternoon, when they face Korea (2-3).
Team Canada website: www.cisport.ca/harbin
2009 Winter Universiade website: www.harbin2009.org
Source: CIS Communications
With victories over Sweden and Poland on the third day of play at the Hei Longjiang Skating Gym, Canada ran their record to 5-0 and are tied with China atop the leaderboard at the midpoint of the competition.
Canada's opening draw on Saturday saw Nicol's team steal multiple points in the seventh and eighth ends, paving the way to a 10-4 win over Stina Viktorsson and her Swedish side.
"To be fair, it was a much closer game that the score indicated," noted Canadian second Danielle Inglis of Kleinburg, Ont. "She had a couple of bad breaks late in the game that weren't necessarily a result of a bad shot. If she draws a better fate on either of the last rocks in those two ends, it's a much different game."
Canada's late game was against a relative neophyte in the international curling waters. Poland isn't known for their prowess in the sport's inner circles, and the Canadian's opponents played a very cautious game in hopes of eking out a major upset, and ended up prevailing 7-5.
"We didn't play all that well against Poland, who really like to keep things pretty clean," said Nicol. "We had a tough time creating chances because there weren't very many rocks in play, but sometimes that's how it goes. It's another 'W' and we move on from there."
Canada's women have endured some notoriously slow starts at major competitions, but Nicol and the rest of the Laurier four are proving themselves to be richly deserving of their impressive record in the standings.
"We dropped our first three games at the 2008 CIS championship last March and then had to fight back from behind to eventually win it all," said Nicol. "For us to be playing from in front is a welcome change."
"I think you want to come out at least 1-1 on these two-draw days. If you split the long days and win more than you lose on the single draw days, you should be somewhere near the playoffs at the end of the week. We've got a lot of our tougher games yet to come. We've got Great Britain, China and even the Czech Republic is having a pretty good week thus far. We knew we needed to get off to a good start in order to be in the best position when we faced those bigger tests later in the week."
Team Canada (5-0) will take to the ice again on Sunday afternoon, when they face Korea (2-3).
Team Canada website: www.cisport.ca/harbin
2009 Winter Universiade website: www.harbin2009.org
Source: CIS Communications
