Thunder Open Curling Season in Red Deer for Bonspiel #1

EDMONTON, AB - November 26, 2018

On Friday afternoon the Thunder traveled to Red Deer for the weekend as Red Deer College hosted ACAC Bopspiel #1. With some returning faces on both the men's and women's team, there were some high expectations for the Thunder to follow last years success under new head coach Taina Smiley who is making her debut with the team.

The men opened up the tournament on Friday evening defeating the Olds College Broncos 13-4. The Thunder kept the momentum rolling on Saturday as they took down the Lakeland Rustlers 10-3 in the first match of the morning. Their wining streak came to a halt as they took a tough loss to the Red Deer Kings 6-5 followed by an 8-1 loss to the NAIT Ooks, who would go on to be undefeated in the tournament. After a nights rest the Thunder rallied back on Sunday by finishing the tournament off with two wins defeating the Augustana Vikings 8-0 and the MacEwan Griffins 6-1. The men would finish the tournament with a (4-2) record leaving them tied for 2nd place with the RDC Kings, behind the (6-0) Ooks.

On the women's side, the ladies were off a tough start as they lost their opening match on Friday night 6-2 to the Lakeland Rustlers. On Saturday morning, the Thunder opened their morning with two more losses to the Ooks (9-0) and the Griffins (6-3) to start the tournament off 0-3. The ladies were able to rally and find their first win on Saturday afternoon against the Vikings (7-6) to end the day on a positive note. Sunday's opening match was a heartbreaker as the Broncos won 6-5. Although it was not the start to the season the Thunder were hoping for, they managed to dig deep in their final match against the host RDC Queens and won 13-6 to end off on a good note. The women finished in 5th place with a (2-4) record.

The next bonspiel for the Thunder will be on January 25-26, 2019 hosted by the MacEwan Griffins.