As members of teams, local curlers came up just a hair short of giving themselves a shot at the medals at the 2024 U Sports Curling Championships in Fredericton last week.

Individually speaking, however, there were some accolades to be garnered by the northern Ontario girls.

After capturing bronze last year on home ice, the Laurentian Voyageurs women's team of Bella Lehtimaki-Croisier (skip), Piper Lehtimaki-Croisier (vice), Mya Smith (second), Britney Malette (lead), Valerie Ouimet (alternate) and coach Ryan Lafraniere dug themselves a hole early, winning their opener before dropping four straight.

Despite back to back wins to close out their week, the L.U. ladies would find themselves one game back of a playoff berth, their record of 3-4 a notch below the New Brunswick Reds, Waterloo Warriors and Dalhousie Tigers, all at 4-3.

An 11-10 victory over the Victoria Vikes seemed to bode well for the locals, but setbacks at the hands of the Alberta Pandas (10-5), the McMaster Marauders (10-3), Dalhousie (8-6) and New Brunswick (8-6) would mean that scorelines of 6-4 and 7-4 over the Mount Allison Mounties and Waterloo would be to no avail.

That, however, didn't stop the front-end tandem of Mya Smith and Britney Malette from being named to the U Sports Championship second all-star team.

For the second straight year, Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School graduate Clara Dissayanake was also at nationals, second for the McMaster rink that also finished round robin play at 3-4.

After running the table early in the week with a record of 7-0, the Alberta Pandas did not slow down in the least in the playoffs, beating Dalhousie 8-3 in semi-final action and outlasting Waterloo 10-7 in the gold medal encounter.

It was a different story on the men's side of the draw as the Regina Cougars got hot at just the right time, sneaking into the playoffs at 4-03 before getting past both the Alberta Pandas (7-5) and Dalhousie Tigers (8-5) to claim the banner.