Kaitlyn Sherrer and her RDC women’s curling team added another medal to the incredibly successful RDC athletic season.
Sherrer and her team of third Julie Primrose, second Courtney Smith and leads Taylor Eno and Jessica Newman, downed Humber College of Etobicoke, Ont., 9-5 to capture gold at the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship in Sault Ste Marie, Ont., Saturday evening.
The RDC crew joined both the men’s and women’s volleyball teams as Canadian champions while the basketball Kings captured silver.
"Some of the people off the other teams were kidding us before we went that it was up to us to continue on after them,” said Sheerer after returning home Sunday afternoon. “It upped the pressure a bit, although it wasn’t something we really worried about.”
In fact Sherrer indicated the team didn’t even think about the standings until one of their mothers mentioned they were in the final after downing Fanshawe College of London., Ont., in the sixth draw to sit with a 5-1 record. They then downed Grant MacEwan in an extra end to finish at 6-1.
“We honestly didn’t know we were even in the playoffs until then,” she said. “Our goal going in was to get into the playoffs, but we were focusing on who we were playing and on each game, not the standings.”
Even after clinching first place in the eight-team round-robin Sherrer didn’t realize they had a berth in the final.
“We though it would be a page system and we’d have to play a semifinal,” she said. “But it was different and it was nice to be in the gold medal game automatically.”
RDC tailed Humber 5-3 after seven ends in the final but scored twice in the eighth and once in the ninth to take the lead. They wrapped up the victory with a steal of three in the 10th when the Humber skip’s final attempted draw to the four-foot came up short.
“I give our coach (Brad Hamilton) credit there,” said Sherrer. “He said to force them to try to draw for one to tie the game and we’d take it into an extra end. Their skip came up short, but they didn’t seem to catch onto the ice while we did.”
For Sherrer, a native of Lacombe, who has been curling since she was six, it was her fourth and final year as skip of the RDC women’s team. Primrose, who was named tournament all-star third, is in her second year while the others are all rookies.
“Julie and I play similar styles, although she’s a bit more aggressive and likes to hit,” said Sherrer, who early in the season would never have believed they would make the nationals, never mind win them.
“We didn’t know what to expect at the beginning, but we kept working together and came together at the right time,” she said. “This is my last year and I couldn’t image a better way to go out.”
Eno and Newman rotated at lead throughout the tournament with Newmann in for the final.
Humber reached the final with a 6-5 win over NAIT, who stopped Mohawk College of Hamilton, Ont., 8-2 in the tie-breaker.
Grant MacEwan downed NAIT 7-4 in the men’s final.