Events

It was an exciting first day of the 2015 Canadian National College-University Championships. Team Event matches got off to a rollicking start, with five all-star teams competing in a round robin format to advance to the finals.

 

 

The Devils, comprised of Maxime Belanger, Marianne Maltais, Simon Jean-Pineault, Felix Marin, Kristina Dumont, and Josianne Langlois took to the courts against Maxime Tetreault, Caroline Beauregard, Joric Goulet, Prathna Sam, Mireille Denis, Janie Groulx, Daniel Jiminez and Anne-Marie Langlois of Bernard et ses apotres.  Both teams played extraordinarily well, but the Devils eventually came out on top with a 3-2 victory. The Men’s Doubles match between the Devils’ Jean-Pineault and Marin and Bernard et ses apotres’ Goulet and Sam was especially close, going a full three games before the Devils won 19-21, 21-13, 21-8.

 

Meanwhile, Owen Kurvits, Olivia Lei, Adam Dong, Darcy Schmidt, Cindy Fu, Tracy Wong, Victoria Hall and Kianoosh Moslemi of the OCAA All Stars were battling against David Bernier Vermette, Ann-Christine Godard, Etienne Dusablon, Olivier Morin, Andreanne Thibault, Marie-Peir Vandais, Julien Dery and Virginie Savard of Les Bandits. The All Stars dominated most of the matches, but Les Bandits’ Dery and Savard scored a hard-fought 21-15, 21-6 victory for their team in Women’s Doubles against the All Stars’ Hall and Moslemi. The OCAA All Stars took the rest, finishing the matchup with a 4-1 win.

 

The second half of the round robin kicked off with the Devils returning to the courts with a slightly different lineup. Vincent Fortier and David Delachevrotiere joined teammates Maltais, Jean-Pineault, Dumont, Langlois and Belanger to secure a 5-0 victory against their opponents, the A Team. The A Team’s Patrick Thompson, Stephanie Graves, Spencer Armsworthy, Ryan Macintosh, Sarah Newman, Stephanie Thompkins, Nick Driscoll and Renee Proctor played very well, and by no means gave the Devils an easy time on the courts. Fortier’s victory against Thompson in Men’s Singles was positively electric – after Fortier’s 8-21 loss in the first game, he had to battle for every point in the next two and won them both by a narrow margin, 22-20, 21-19. Women’s Doubles saw a close match as well, with Dumont and Langlois trading 21-19 victories with the A Team’s Newman and Thompkins in the first two games before they clinched a 21-11 win in the third.

 

After their loss against the Devils, The A Team faced Bernard et ses apotres to decide which group would advance to the finals. Bernard Pallotta joined Goulet, Denis, Tetreault, Groulx, Langlois and Jiminez on Bernard et ses apotres’ roster, while The A Team remained the same. While most of the games were close, the match of the night definitely goes to the Mixed Doubles bout between Bernard et ses apotres’ Denis and Jiminez and The A Team’s Armsworthy and Graves. It was the final match of the evening, and the two teams were tied 2-2. The first game was a true spectacle, and ended in an almost unheard of 26-24 victory for Armsworthy and Graves. Determined to make it to the finals, Denis and Jiminez gave it their all in the second game, and for a while it looked like the matchup might continue into a third game. Unfortunately for Bernard et ses apotres, Armsworthy and Graves scored a 22-20 win, giving The A Team a 3-2 victory and a shot at taking third place in the Team Event.

 

The Devils will face the OCAA All-Stars Saturday Morning for the gold medal match, while The A-Team and Les Bandits duke it out for bronze. The 2015 Canadian National College-University Championships Individual Events will begin shortly thereafter.