The Carleton Ravens women’s curling team brought home a Canadian Interuniversity Sport/Canadian Curling Association (CIS/CCA) championship from Regina on March 23.
The team defeated the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks in the semi-finals, and then the University of Alberta Pandas in the final.
“We managed the ice really well,” second Lynn Kreviazuk said. “We all came out knowing that we were going to have to play basically as well as we could up against these two really strong teams and so we came together and we pulled out a win.”
In a tight contest against the Golden Hawks, the Ravens were able to secure a 6-4 victory in the 10th end and book a date in the finals with the Pandas.
In the championship match the Ravens fended off the favoured Pandas, who earned a bye to the finals after finishing the round robin portion of the tournament with a 6-1 record.
The Ravens defeated the Pandas in nine ends by a score of 9-4 to lock up their first ever CIS/CCA championship.
Head coach and father of Lynn Kreviazuk, Doug Kreviazuk, stressed the instrumental role team chemistry played in the victory and was confident of his team’s abilities all along.
“I didn’t put it past them that they were going to go out and certainly be in the top two within Canada,” Doug said. “I think that the girls—all five of them—are very dedicated to their sport. They play on numerous teams, so their level of commitment is tremendous.”
But even more impressive about the Ravens’ monumental season is the fact that they are a competitive club and not a varsity team at Carleton, and therefore have different fund allocation.
“I think that would be our ultimate goal, to secure some financial support from the university towards curling,” Doug said.
Yaman Marwah, clubs co-ordinator for Carleton’s department of recreation and athletics said the process for getting funding is changing.
“For next year coming, there’s a whole new approach for the competitive clubs in general . . . [that] is based on the previous evaluation for the club, which is definitely going to give curling more funding for next year,” Marwah said.
With the championship victory, the Ravens, led by skip Jamie Sinclair, now have the opportunity to represent Canada at the 2015 Winter Universiade in Granada, Spain.
“We’re very proud to have our competitive club reach this level and to have them reach the world championships in Spain,” Marwah said.
He said no official decision has been made on whether or not the team will choose to compete at the 2015 World University Games.
But Doug said it would be an excellent experience for the team.
“To represent your country at a world competition and wear that Maple Leaf on your back is very, very special,” he said. “For all five of the girls, that is absolutely an honour.”
