March 9, 2020

CCAA Curling Championships among four events set to kick-off in Portage la Prairie

When it comes to national curling championships, Portage la Prairie, Man., will be the centre of attention when it hosts four prestigious curling events, beginning Wednesday, March 11 and running through March 22 at Stride Place and the Portage Curling Club.

Curlers competing for the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA)/Curling Canada Championships will be sharing the venue with competitors in the U SPORTS/Curling Canada University Curling Championships, 2020 CanadInns Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, and the Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships.

This will be the third season the CCAA/Curling Canada championships — an event for colleges, institutes and non-U SPORTS universities — operates with the support of Curling Canada.

Taking place from Wednesday through Sunday, the CCAA/Curling Canada and U SPORTS/Curling Canada championships are loaded with talent, from a Tim Hortons Brier participant to world and Canadian junior champions.

Defending women's champion Douglas College from New Westminster, B.C., skipped by Kayla MacMillan, aims to defend its title against the likes of perennial contender Fanshawe College (London, Ont.) skipped by Amelia Dolsen, and Humber College (Toronto) skipped by 2018 world and Canadian junior champion Kaitlyn Jones, who moved to the CCAA ranks after competing with Dalhousie University in the U SPORTS competition last year.

On the men's side, Concordia University of Edmonton, skipped by Evan Van Amsterdam, aims to retain the title but expects stiff competition from the likes of Fanshawe (skip Charlie Richard) and Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (Edmonton) led by skip Trygg Jensen, who is just coming off an appearance at the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier with Team Yukon.

Both university and collegiate teams will play in an eight-team round robin with the top four teams advancing to semi-final and medal games on Sunday, March 15.

CBC Sports will livestream various games from all championships during the preliminary rounds as well as several finals, with select playoff games, including the gold-medal game, broadcasted on CBC TV. You can watch at cbcsports.ca or via the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android.

The CCAA Championship website is available here.

To view the full schedule, click here.

Draw results and event information for all four championships are available at https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/#!/

Source: Curling Canada