Handshakes for Team Canada after a 9-5 win over Russia at the 2015 Universiade in Granada, Spain (Photo Brian Chick)
Matt Dunstone and his Winnipeg team of third Jim Coleman, second Daniel Grant, lead Chris Gallant and coach Scott Grant came into Sunday morning’s game against the Russian Federation’s Evgeny Arkhipov with a 1-3 record and in desperate need of some wins.
They delivered, posting a solid 9-5 victory over the Russians and following that with an impressive 11-2 win over Spain’s Sergio Vez in evening play.
“We got off to a rough start and we lost some games that I expected to win, but this match-up against Russia was one of those games that was a toss-up in my mind,” said coach Grant. “That Russian team is their Olympic team, and a great team. So this was a great win for us. We made a few little adjustments coming into the match, and Matthew’s confidence finally got back to where it should be, and the guys played great.”
“We knew we had to come out big today,” said Dunstone after the morning game. “We knew we were playing one of the best teams at the tournament today, and we had to raise our game to play them. I thought we did a great job as a team stepping up and playing big when we needed to.”
“It’s not how you start a tournament, but how you finish,” the skip said. “We’re hoping this is the start of something good for us, as we’re still in it. I like where we’re at right now. It was a must win. The three loss mark is where you have limit yourself, so we knew we were on our last legs today.”
In the game with Spain, Canada controlled play, taking multiple points with hammer and securing the win with a six-ender in the seventh.
“The crowd was definitely not cheering for us, but they seemed to like it when we threw the big weight and made some rocks fly,” said Dunstone. “Those guys played a great game and made us uncomfortable a few times early on. They had a few shots that just missed, which could have seriously changed the game.”
On the women’s side, skip Breanne Meakin, third Lauren Horton, second Lynn Kreviazuk, lead Jessica Armstrong and coach Doug Kreviazuk continued their roll through the field, dominating in a six-end 16-2 win over the host country’s Patricia Arbues.
Meakin and her Ottawa-based team remain undefeated at the top of the standings, followed closely by the Russian Federation’s Anna Sidorova and Sweden’s Sara McManus, both with 5-1 records.
On Monday, the Canadian women face Norway’s Pia Trulsen (3-3) at 3 a.m. EST and Sidorova in the evening game at 3 p.m. EST. The men will try to keep the wins coming with one game against Norway’s Steffen Walstad at 9 a.m. EST.
There are numerous ways to follow Team Canada at the Winter Universiade:
Official Universiade results site:
http://www.granada2015.org/en/sports/schedule-a-results
Official Universiade live streaming:
http://www.granada2015.org/en/media-universiada/universiade-tv
Official Team Canada Universiade websites:
ENG: http://english.cis-sic.ca/universiade/winter/2015/index
FRE: http://francais.cis-sic.ca/universiade/hiver/2015/index
CIS YouTube (Daily videos of Team Canada at Universiade):
https://www.youtube.com/universitysport/
FISU YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FISUTV
Team Canada Facebook (photos, updates, recaps):
https://www.facebook.com/CDNUniversiade
Team Canada Instagram (photos):
http://instagram.com/cdnuniversiade
Team Canada Twitter (updates, photos, recaps):
https://twitter.com/CDNUniversiade