CREDIT: JASON YOUNG
Fanshawe's women's curling team won a silver medal at the CCAA Championships, losing to the Seneca Sting 8-4 in the finals.

After four days of a hard fought battle at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championships, Fanshawe’s women’s curling team came second and the men’s team fifth.

The final game for the women was against the Seneca Sting who not only finished first in the round robin, but also beat Fanshawe in the Ontario Collegiate Athletic Association (OCAA) Championships.

It was evident as the game began that neither team wanted to give away any ground early as neither team managed to get on the scoreboard in the first two ends.

It was in the third and fourth where the Sting managed to take the lead by six and leave Fanshawe with nothing. Although the Falcons managed to get a few, the score ended at 8–4 and the women were awarded a silver medal.

“There is no shame in losing to them they are an excellent team and a lot of credits to our girls who fought bitterly to the end of that game…I am really proud of all the efforts that the women’s team put in and finishing second in the country is a tremendous accomplishment,” said head coach Barry Westman.

Although the men’s team was not able to make it to a medal round, Westman said their work ethic was the best he has seen in awhile.

“The men’s team were the medal winners at the provincial level so there were some expectations [for nationals] and the group of guys on that team worked harder than anybody that I have ever seen to try and prepare for an event.”

According to Westman, the team was in a good position on Friday, but then ran into some extremely talented teams that were able to come out a little hotter than the Falcons.

The men’s team ended up coming out one shot short of a win in the tie breaking game that would have moved them to a medal round.

And even though the championships were hosted in London, which gave both teams a bi to the tournament, the teams deserved their spot according to Westman.

“Both teams earned their way to the Championships; they both belonged there.”

According to Westman, the fact that the championships were hosted at home made the event a little more pleasant.

“This is our first time having it on home turf so that was really nice way to be involved with the event from a host perspective, which game us an advantage that sometimes we were able to take advantage of and sometimes we weren’t.”

And coming off a season like this, Westman looks optimistically towards next year and knows what each team has to do to develop the skills needed to compete at a national level.

“Having that experience and having this success we know what we need to do to get ready to take another run at this and that is definitively the goal for next year.”