SUDBURY, Ontario - Regrouped and refocused, Laurier's men's curling team came away with a pair of wins on Friday at the 2023 U SPORTS/Curling Canada University Championship in Sudbury.
After stumbling to a 9-8 loss at the hands of the UNB Reds the evening prior, the Golden Hawks came out with something to prove - and they did just that by defeating the Queen's Gaels 10-7 in a rematch of this year's OUA Championship final.
With the score tied 4-4 mid-way through the draw, Laurier posted its third two-point end up to that point and then followed it up with a three-point 8th to secure the victory - and its largest point total in single game so far.
First-year environmental studies major Wyatt Small was particularly sharp in his shot assignment, recording a team-high 91%.
In what was the best all-around performance by the Golden Hawks in the evening draw against Laurentian, the team shot 86% en route to an 8-5 win over the hosts.
Laurier posted deuces in the first, third, sixth, and eighth ends to force the early handshakes from the Voyageurs after the ninth end. Kibo Mulima, a second-year student-athlete from Inverary, Ont., led the charge at 94%.
Having improved their record to 4-1, they now head into the final day of pool play Saturday sitting atop the standings tied with the Dalhousie Tigers.
Dalhousie's lone loss came at the hands of Laurier's next opponent: the Calgary Dinos. The Canada West representative forced the Tigers to concede on Friday night after piling up an 8-3 scoreline, which secured the Dinos' second win of the bonspiel.
The current first-place teams will go head-to-head on Sunday at 4:30 pm in a rematch of the 2020 national championship final. The Adam McEachren-skipped Dalhousie rink completed their AUS conference championship three-peat just over a month ago.
Fortunately for the Golden Hawks, they are riding a new wave of momentum after conducting some hard self-reflection.
"After (Thursday) night's tough loss, we had a good team meeting. We checked in on a lot of things," said Mulima. "We had some good rest and ... focused on our (pre-game) routines.
"Ultimately, we just came out and performed the way we know we can. That's going to be the key to continue being successful this weekend."
Laurier head coach Matt Wilkinson agreed that his squad "looked like a different team" while recording bounce-back victories.
"Yesterday's split was a bit of a struggle. In (Thursday) night's game, we weren't ourselves. UNB took advantage of that," said Wilkinson. "Today we came out and played well."
The top four teams in the pool after Saturday's games will advance to Sunday's semi-finals at 9:30 am. The gold-medal final will be held that afternoon at 2:30 pm.
There will not be a video stream for either game on Saturday but live stats and scoring will be available on the Curling Canada website. You can also follow along with updates on social media at @WLUAthletics on Instagram and Twitter.
