In the upper tier of the OUA women’s curling community, there is very little to choose between the contenders.

The fact is that the Laurier Golden Hawks, McMaster Marauders, Laurentian Voyageurs and Queen’s Gaels have accounted for every single provincial championship banner since 2014 – and the Waterloo Warriors claimed silver at U Sports nationals last year.

So when Sunday afternoon arrived at the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club and a trio of the above were left standing in the final four, with the host team eliminated despite posting a flawless 4-0 mark in round robin play, few were surprised.

“There’s a huge amount of parity, across the board, in OUA women’s curling, which is fantastic,” noted Laurentian head coach (of both men and women), Ryan Lafraniere. The tinge of disappointment in his assertion might not be evident in the written word after the Voyageurs, OUA champions in 2024, were eliminated by Queen’s in the quarter-finals, 6-4.

“Whether you’re a one seed or an eight seed, those are still two really good teams,” Lafraniere added. In fact, Laurentian downed Queen’s 7-6 in their opening encounter of the weekend, following up with victories over Ontario Tech (7-2), Laurier (5-3) and Algoma (9-5).

That sense of overall competitiveness was echoed by first year McMaster head coach Jacob Lamb, his team capturing their third title in the past five years thanks to a 5-3 win over Laurier, with the Guelph Gryphons earning the third and final OUA berth at nationals in Lethbridge, trimming Queen’s 9-6 in the bronze medal affair.

“We were vying for one of those playoff spots and giving ourselves a chance to qualify for nationals,” Lamb confessed.

Posting a 3-1 record in their preliminary games, the Marauders (Maggie Fitzgerald – skip but throws second; Rachel Steele – vice but throws last rocks; Evelyn Robert – third; Anastasia Cornea and Sydney Taylor – co-leads) edged the Carleton Ravens 4-3 in the round of eight before bouncing Guelph 7-1 to secure their spot at the U Sports playdowns February 24th to 28th in Alberta.

“That took some of the pressure off and helped us reset,” acknowledged Lamb. “To win the (OUA) banner would be awesome, but it was the cherry on top.”

With the bulk of university curlers far busier with their U20 and women’s teams than they are competing in OUA bonspiels*, coaching carries a slightly different emphasis at this level than it might for many other post-secondary sports.

*(speaking of other curling commitments: Lo-Ellen Park graduate and third year McMaster curler Clara Dissayanake was not with her Marauders team this weekend – but for very good reason – as she was busy capturing gold at the Ontario U21 championships as the lead for the Dominique Vivier rink that will join Team Toner at the Canadian Championships in Prince Edward Island)

“The biggest thing in coaching this team was just being a calming influence,” said Lamb, a former varsity curler at McMaster from 2014 to 2019. “Because they all operate at that high level and are such perfectionists with how they throw, they tend to be too hard on themselves, overall.”

“When you’re practicing and working on refining things, that’s great – but once you’re in a game situation, you don’t need that added stress.”

While the gold medal encounter was certainly not stress free, a 5-0 lead that McMaster built up by the halfway mark provided a cushion that was very much appreciated.

“Laurier are really strong competitors; they will find a way to get back into the game,” said Lamb. “We tried to make sure that we were not in a position to give up anything big in those ends. Honestly, Laurier was doing everything they could in the second half to find ways to score.”

That notion of striving for perfection but being comfortable in dealing with the reality that no single curler this weekend was likely to curl at a 100% clip was also front and centre in the pre-event preparation for the Marauders, the rink that ultimately would lead all others in the tie-breaker draws that might have proven crucial.

“We had practiced the draws a lot leading up to the event, but I really think the biggest thing was not putting too much pressure on ourselves,” stated Lamb. “A lot of our team strives for perfection – but as long as we could consistently throw well, just try and hit the four foot with every rock instead of trying to put it right on the pin, we would be fine.”

The Laurentian roster that advanced to the top eight in the field of 16 but could not get to the final four included: Bella Lehtimaki-Croisier (skip - and first team OUA all-star); Piper Croisier (vice); Dayna Wahl (second); Valerie Ouimet (lead).

Sudbury native and Queen's lead Justine Toner was also named to the OUA first all-star team

This coming weekend sees the Galt Country Club in Cambridge hosting the men’s OUA Curling Championships with the quartet of Olivier Bonin-Ducharme (skip), Ian Deschene (vice), Samuel Branconnier (second) and Owen Allard (lead) carrying the L.U. hopes into competition.