The last week of action for NAIT Ooks teams featured a series clinch and appearances at a National tournament!

CURLING
The NAIT Ooks Men's Curling Squad participated in the 2024 CCAA Curling National Championships, hosted in Fredericton, NB, throughout last week.

The opening match occurred immediately after the opening ceremonies, as the Ooks took on Mohawk College. NAIT roared out to a 3-0 lead after the first end and still held a 4-2 lead after three ends. However, Mohawk responded with a three-point 4th end of their own to take the lead. NAIT would manage to pull even after the fifth end, but from there, it was all Mohawk, as they tallied multiple points at each end after that. The match was conceded after eight ends, with a 13-5 final for Mohawk.

Day 2 saw the Ooks open with a familiar opponent, in the SAIT Trojans. In what turned out to be a flipped script from the previous match, it was SAIT who got on the board first, leading 1-0 after the first end and extending the margin to 3-1 after the third. Continuing the reversal, the Ooks took over from there, scoring points in each of the final five ends, with the match being conceded by SAIT after the eighth, finishing with a 9-3 score in the Ooks' favour.

Later on in Day 2, the Ooks would go up against Humber College, riding some momentum from that morning's match versus SAIT. Humber proved to be a difficult challenge, but the Ooks kept pace throughout, making for a much closer match than the first two NAIT played in. Following an opening point by Humber, NAIT responded with a three-point second end and, after falling behind 4-3, pulled even with Humber after five ends.

The rest of the way, the teams largely traded singles, and the 9th end wound up being the decisive one, as Humber scored two in that frame, then would stave off an Ooks tying attempt in the 10th end to win 8-6.

Day 3 got underway with the morning matchup featuring the Ooks taking on Assiniboine Community College. Looking to move past the narrow defeat to Humber, the Ooks played what could best be described as their most complete match of the tournament, keeping Assiniboine to two single points across eight ends and posting multiple points in three of their end victories to cruise to a 9-2 eight-end victory and reignite momentum.

The Ooks would need that momentum heading into yet another all-ACAC contest in the later game, this time against the cross-town rival Concordia Thunder. By some measure, this match wound up being the closest one of the tournament for the Ooks. Three times in the match, neither team got a point in an end, including in two of the first four. NAIT opened up with a two-point first end, and after a Thunder single in the 3rd, posted two more in the 5th to jump to a 4-1 lead. Though Concordia got those two back in the 6th end, NAIT put up three in the 8th to essentially put the match out of reach, winning 7-4 after Concordia could only tally one point in the 9th end.

For Day 4, the Ooks opened with one more all-ACAC contest against Red Deer Polytechnic. This game would feature a smaller start for NAIT, as Red Deer would open with three points in the first end and hold that 3-0 lead through the second. After that, NAIT turned it on in a big way, pulling even at 4-4 by the conclusion of the 5th end, and after trading single points with Red Deer, exploding for four points in the 8th and adding one more in the 9th for good measure, for their third straight win, this one by a 10-5 score.

Closing out round-robin play in the early-afternoon, the Ooks took on Sault College, looking to finish 5-2 heading to the knockout rounds. A solid start saw Sault get the opening point, and the Ooks rallied with four straight points to lead 4-1 after five ends. Sault, not going away quietly, had massive sixth and seventh ends with five combined points to take a 6-4 lead. NAIT responded with an 8th-end single to cut the lead to 6-5, but with a chance to pull even, it would, unfortunately, fall in Sault's favour, with a double pushing their lead to 8-5, where the match would be conceded. The Ooks finished their seven games of round-robin action with a 4-3 record.

On to the semi-finals on Day 5, where the Ooks would face Mohawk once again, looking to avenge their opening-game defeat. Unfortunately for the Ooks, it was just not their match, as Mohawk would tally three points in the first end and not allow the Ooks much of anything throughout the match. Even with two points in the 8th end, NAIT conceded after that frame, with the final score being 10-3 in Mohawk's favour.

Settling for a berth in the bronze-medal match, the Ooks would again verse their Southern Alberta rivals, the SAIT Trojans. Far from lopsided like the first match was, this would be a back-and-forth affair that saw very few multiple-point ends and both teams matching the other's scores. Down 5-4 heading into the 9th end, NAIT would pull through with a single to even things up at 5-5 entering the 10th and final end of the match, but that was where the run would end for the Ooks, as the Trojans scored the only three-point end of the match to take the Bronze medal, winning 8-5.
Your Ooks Men's Curling team finishes their outstanding season with the 4th-place finish at the National Championships.

WOMEN'S HOCKEY

Your Ooks women's hockey team was in action for the final time this season, continuing their ACAC Finals series against the Lakeland College Rustlers.

The weekend before, they had jumped out to a two-game to 0 series lead thanks to a solid 3-1 win at Lakeland on Friday and a come-from-behind 3-2 win at home on Saturday. This set the Ooks up well for success, as they would have up to three chances to win the series and bring home a Championship.

Game 3 at Lakeland would be a big challenge, as the Rustlers were looking to impress their home fans, potentially one last time this season. The Rustlers would score the first two goals of the game, opening things up in the first period and taking advantage of the home crowd's support.

NAIT would get one back before the end of the frame thanks to Bre Martin, who tallied her third goal of the series. 2-1 would not only be the score after one period but also after two periods as the Ooks hung in there, looking for potentially another third-period rally to close the series out. Unfortunately, it would be Lakeland's turn to come out with a two-goal third period, putting the game out of reach despite a second Ooks goal, this time off the stick of Cheyenna Harden. The Rustlers took Game 3 by a final score of 4-2, sending the series back to Edmonton for a Game 4.

Coming back home to play in front of their fans for a certain last time this season, the Ooks were motivated to wrap the series up and avoid having to make an extra trip out to Lakeland the next day. A packed, electrified Nest would see the Ooks come out flying in the first period, and even as things remained scoreless for the first 14 minutes, there was a special feeling about this night for the home team. Sure enough, it was fifth-year veteran Bre Martin who would break this game open with a power-play goal, her 4th goal of the series, at 14:37 to commence the scoring, then adding her 5th goal of the series in the final minute of the 1st period to send the Ooks to the dressing room with a 2-0 lead. Over the final 40 minutes, it would be all defence and goaltending, with neither team allowing much, and the goalies stopping what was allowed to reach their nets. Kaitlyn Slator, another Ooks graduating player, would ultimately post a 27-save shutout, her second series-clinching postseason shutout, as Game 4 would go to the Ooks by a 2-0 final score.

On a beautiful Saturday night, your Ooks Women's Hockey team became ACAC Champions for the first time since 2015! Congrats, Ooks, on a fantastic season and championship victory!