The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's and women's curling teams took to this ice this past weekend (Jan. 23-24) at the Brock Invitational to partake in a final tune-up before the OUA championships held in Guelph from Feb. 11-13.

"Both team's demonstrated they were competitive," said head coach John Rudd who is in his second year at the helm of the program. "A huge accomplishment was their strong team dynamics while playing under the pressure of some very tough competition. Mental toughness is critical at high levels of competition and both teams demonstrated excellent mental skills which will serve them well at the OUA's".

For the women, their strong mental game was matched by their strong performance finishing the weekend with a 3-1 record. On day one, the team split their matchups defeating the Waterloo Warriors 7-4 while dropping a 10-3 decision to the Queen's Gaels. They then followed that up with back-to-back victories on day two defeating the Western Mustangs 7-3 before dropping the Trent Excalibur 9-7 in their final match of the invitational.

On the men's side of the draw the Varsity Blues played tougher then their 1-3 record would indicate. Splitting the opening day with an 8-3 victory over the UOIT Ridgebacks and an 8-1 loss to the Laurier Golden Hawks, Toronto dropped their day two opener 7-3 to the Queen's Gaels before ending the tournament with a 6-3 loss to the McMaster Marauders.

"Both the men's and women's teams had goals going into this event," said Rudd. "First and foremost the teams wanted to test themselves against the teams they will face at OUA's. They wanted to find the gaps, if any, between themselves and the other varsity teams and those gaps will form the basis of the final training programs of the teams as we approach OUA's over the next few weeks. Both teams had a good event in different ways but now both teams have a clear idea of what they must do to get better."

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