PREVIEW: 2024 AUS Curling Championships
Dalhousie looks to continue run as men's and women's champs
Dalhousie looks to continue run as men's and women's champs
(MONTAGUE, P.E.I.) - The 2024 AUS Curling Championships, presented by Bell, hits the ice tomorrow with the host UPEI Panthers welcoming teams to the Montague Curling Club in Montague, PEI.
The host rink, located east of Charlottetown, will see seven women’s teams and five men’s teams compete for AUS supremacy. Standing in the way of those wanting that title are the Dalhousie Tigers – who have seen their men’s teams capture the last five AUS titles, and their women’s team the last four.
“Winning a sixth consecutive title won’t be easy,” said Anthony Purcell, head coach of Dalhousie’s men’s team. “The teams are strong at this event and if you don’t play well, there’s a good chance you won’t win. If we play to our capabilities, we have the talent and experience to win the AUS title.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will play a full round-robin schedule, with the first draws set for 9 a.m. Thursday morning. Following round-robin play, the top four teams will advance to the playoffs with the first and fourth seed, and second and third seed, facing off for a spot in the semifinals.
The semifinal winners will advance to their respective championship final on Sunday – both scheduled for 1 p.m. The losers of the semifinals will play for third place and the final berth at the 2024 U SPORTS/Curling Canada University Championships in Fredericton, N.B. - hosted by the University of New Brunswick, March 12-16.
The last time a team not named the Tigers won the women’s AUS title was back in the 2017-18 season (Mount Allison), the men’s back in 2016-17 (Memorial University). The Panthers, who also hosted this event back in 2014-15, are looking for their first AUS titles on both the men’s and women’s sides.
Leading the way for Dal’s men’s side is skip Owen Purcell, who returns to the team after taking last AUS season off.
Back in 2022, Owen skipped the Tigers to the AUS title and then followed that up with a win at the 2022 FISU World University Games qualifier. At those Games in 2023 in Lake Placid, N.Y., Purcell’s rink earned a bronze medal.
Owen slots back in at skip following the departure of Adam McEachern, who threw third rocks for Owen in 2022 but skipped the Tigers to AUS gold last season. Joining Owen this season will be Ethan Young (third), Caelan McPherson (second) and David McCurdy (lead).
“Adam is a big loss,” Anthony stated. “He’s a long-time teammate of Owen’s and brought so much experience and energy to the team.”
Changes at the helm are not just limited to Dalhousie’s men’s team, as Ally McNutt will hold the broom for her team this season after helping the Tigers to AUS gold last year as the team’s third.
“Ally has been skipping her own high-performance team for a couple of years now, and I have seen great progress in her strategy and shot making. She will be a great leader for this team,” said the head coach of the Dalhousie women’s curling team, Mary Mattatall.
McNutt will be joined by veteran Lindsey Burgess (third), Grace McCusker (second) and newcomer Cate Fitzgerald (lead) – all of whom come in with impressive resumes of their own.
“All of these women are either training for U20s or have recently competed in the provincial Scotties Championships, so they have been training and competing at an elite level the entire year,” Mattatall added. “I have great confidence they will perform well this weekend in PEI.”
The full championship schedule and results is available here: https://montague.curling.io/en/events/17749-aus-university-playdowns/widget
Action from Sheet B will be streamed live all weekend long on AUStv with both championship games (Sheets B and C) being broadcast on Sunday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m.