Play got underway this morning at the Atlantic University Curling Championships at the Cornwall Curling Club, with the A and B qualifiers from the 5 team men’s and women’s double knockout events representing the Atlantic region at the CIS/CCA University Championships from March 14-18 in Welland, Ontario.

CCA photo: Brett Gallant

Former Canadian Junior champion Brett Gallant, representing UPEI, is the leader on the men’s side, beating Robert Mayhew and his Acadia team 8-5 this morning, and scored three points in the third end to pull into the lead, and held on for a 7-5 win over the Colin Thomas foursome from Memorial University of Newfoundland, who are the defending Canadian champions. The Gallant rink, which includes Alex MacFadyen, Sam Ramsay, and Connor MacPhee, now take on the Colten Steele team from Saint Mary’s in the A final at 9 am Sunday, with the winner qualifying for the Canadian championships.

The Steele rink beat the Dalhousie University rink skipped by PEI native Adam Casey by an 8-6 score to advance to the men’s A final against UPEI. Casey had a 5-3 lead going into the 8th end of the 10 end contest, but Steele took a triple in the eighth and a deuce in the final end for the win, with Casey picking up a single point in nine.

On the women’s side, Erin Porter and her Memorial squad are in the lead at 2-0, beating the St. FX rink skipped by Taylor Clarke 8-3 this morning, and downing the hometown Sarah Fullerton rink from UPEI by a 10-2 score this afternoon. The Porter team will take on the Acadia women’s foursome skipped by Lindsay Doucet in the A final at 9 am Sunday, with the winner advancing to the nationals.  Doucet doubled the Saint Mary’s rink skipped by PEI native Anita Casey (Adam’s sister) 8-4 this morning to advance to the A final.

The event concludes with the selection of the second set of qualifiers for the Canadians, with the men’s and women’s B finals Sunday at 2 pm.