Thunder win CCAA Women’s Curling Championship
The 2023-24 season for Thunder Curling started out as any normal season. New players would join the current members of the team in hopes of another successful year. Men’s curling saw the addition of new Skip Sean Borkovic and Second Anthony Ogg. Both Borkovic and Ogg transferred from NAIT, looking for a fresh start with the Thunder.
“There were a lot of big adjustments to make to play and perform well when coming to this team. It’s a great team environment and I’m happy that I joined this group,” Ogg commented.
The women’s group added to their already-talented core with new Second Brenna Bilassy, who knew the group from the curling scene prior to joining. Her extensive success in curling raised the bar with the team’s expectations for themselves.
“When we hit the ice, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. It’s a process, not a game outcome, it’s little outcomes throughout your game. You have to make a shot, finish the end, score what you need to in that end, keep going and your final outcome is a result of those little processes. We knew we had to put in the work,” women’s Third Payton Sonnenberg mentioned.
With both teams coming off 2022/23 ACAC Curling Championship titles and the women’s team placing third at the previous CCAA Curling Championship, the goals were the same as they’ve always been: a winning season with eyes on the ultimate prize—a national title.
ACAC Championship
At the completion of the ACAC Championship, both the men’s and women’s curling teams finished in second. Men’s curling had fallen to Red Deer, while women’s curling was defeated by SAIT. Both Thunder teams received an invite to the 2024 CCAA/Curling Canada National Championships in Fredericton, N.B.
“I’m happy with how we did at provincials with silver. I personally was progressing through some injury and felt my health and skill development really peaked at the ACAC championships,” senior Third Matthew Wasylenko commented.
“I thought both teams did really well at ACAC championships,” Head Coach Taina Smiley added. “It was a little bit of an up and down. A little bit of nerves I think, but they both performed very well. Being in the gold medal game is a big deal.”
National Championship
Heading into Nationals, both teams were on the hunt for the first curling national championship for Concordia since 2019-2020 when current assistant coach Braden Pelech was the Skip for the men’s team that won it all. At the end of round robin play, CUE women’s curling finished with a 5-2 record, while the men’s team finished 1-6. The round robin play was highlighted by clutch plays that included an 11-2 win for the men against Assiniboine Community College as well as ends of seven points and six points in the same game for the women, en route to a 17-1 win over Mohawk College. Though the women’s team was moving on to the semi-final, the round robin marked the end of the men’s CCAA championship run.
“I think we were resilient. I think that we came out to every game prepared to play our best and win. You expect it to be difficult because the pressure is on and the team’s you’re playing are great. Team’s peak at the right time. We were just on the wrong side of some games. I’m very proud of my teammates and how hard they worked this tournament,” remarked men’s Lead James McCabe.
“Playing at the level we did at nationals is not something everyone gets to do. It was a fun experience to do that with the team around us even though we didn’t get the results we hoped for,” added Wasylenko.
Going for Gold
After a successful 7-4 win over Humber college in the Semi-Final match, Concordia moved on to the CCAA Women’s Championship Final. The Thunder were going up against rival SAIT, which beat them in the ACAC Championship a couple weeks prior. It’s normal for these teams to meet up in big moments, which makes these games that much more intense for both sides.
“Most of SAIT’s players come from the Alberta Junior Curling Tour just like us,” Thunder Skip Gabrielle Wood noted.
“No one else in the CCAA curling world has played each other as much as we’ve played. They’ve won competitive games against us; we’ve won competitive games against them. We know they can make shots, we know they can sweep, we know they can call a good game, so you know you need to do the same.”
Another close game between the two teams had the Thunder up by one going into the tenth and final end. A missed final shot by SAIT allowed Concordia to pull away with an 8-5 win and the National Championship. As the Trojans were getting ready to release the final rock, Wood was anxiously waiting for the result.
“SAIT let the rock go and I was standing beside Payton. We were both pretty sure, pretty soon that we had won. We had to stand beside each other and hold it together until the rock stopped moving. Payton looked at me and said, ‘I think this means we did it’. After we shook hands with SAIT, I thought I was holding it together, but then Brenna started crying, which made me immediately start crying. It was very exciting. We knew this year was probably our best chance to win so it was exciting we got to reach our full potential with the team we had this season.”
Hardware
The 2023/24 curling season will be remembered as a huge success.
Individually, we saw Skip Sean Borkovic win the ACAC Men’s Curler of the Year and Brenda Bilassy win ACAC Women’s Curling Rookie of the Year. In his final year with the Thunder, Matt Wasylenko earned an ACAC All-Conference nod.
At the national, Rachel Jost, Payton Sonnenberg, and Gabrielle Wood each won CCAA First Team All-Star awards, with Brenna Bilassy receiving a CCAA Second Team All-Star selection. James McCabe was also selected by his peers to receive the CCAA Exemplary Leadership Award for a second consecutive year.
“I felt really proud of our group because we’ve been so close friendship wise for so long. I’m so proud of us doing this all together,” Sonnenberg added.
“I think the year’s been great,” Coach Smiley stated. “It was an easy transition for Brenna with the women’s team. With the men’s team, we had new players, a new Skip, so the team dynamics were just starting to come together. The more these teams are exposed to championship games, the more comfortable they will be in those moments and with each other. Overall, it’s been a great year.”
For the women’s team, a new national championship trophy and banner will be displayed in Ralph King Athletic Centre, remembering this incredible season forever.
Next Up
With their win at Nationals, the women’s team has been invited to compete against some of the top curling teams in the country at the 2024 PointsBet Invitational in Calgary, AB. This tournament includes top teams from the final Canadian Team Rankings System standings, USPORT Championship teams, and more.
“We are very excited to play in the PointsBet,” said Wood.
“It’s such a huge privilege to compete in this tournament. We’ll be competing against an elite team, likely a team that’s won a Grand Slam, a Scotties, or played in the Olympics. Very high caliber athletes. We’re all very much looking forward to it”.