A curling team based out of Cloverdale and Langley have been crowned Canadian champions after winning the 2015 Canadian Women’s Masters Curling Championships in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Team Lepine – skip Karen Lepine, third Susan Beuk, second Agnes Sigurdson and lead Donna Christian – defeated the top-seeded rink from Ontario to claim the title.
They are the first-ever B.C. women’s team to win the Canadian masters crown.
“We are very proud to say that B.C. brought home the gold,” Lepine said. “I felt very calm going into the final. I had been runner up in the Canadian seniors, and the mixed (championships), so it was nice to have a chance to be able to play in a Canadian final again.”
The foursome won the championship match after stealing a crucial single point in the eighth end.
“We had to steal. We all made our shots and we had a piece of the button,” Lepine explained, adding that they also had two perfect guard rocks, which forced Ontario to draw to the button on the other side.
Lepine’s rink had a 7-2 record after the pool stage of the tournament, and qualified for the gold-medal game after defeating Manitoba 7-0 in the semifinals.
The team had earned its way to nationals after winning provincial masters curling championships last month in Nanaimo.