Comox Valley curler Jordan Koster and her teammates on the Reese-Hansen rink from the Victoria Curling Club won the gold medal at the B.C. Junior Women’s Curling Championship Dec. 23 in Langley.
Koster, 20, plays in the second position. Taylor Reese-Hansen is skip, Catera Park third and Sydney Brilz is lead. They will represent B.C. at the national junior men’s and women’s championships Jan. 13-21 in Shawinigan, Que.
After losing their first two round-robin games, Team Reese-Hansen bounced back to win seven of their next eight, including the gold medal game against a strong Team Daniels of the Royal City/Delta curling clubs. The Daniels rink finished number one on the season-long B.C. Junior Curling Tour, and was the top seed at the end of round robin play in Langley.
“We’re pretty excited,” Koster said. “That’s the first time we’ve beat them.”
“It feels amazing,” Reese-Hansen said in a news release. “We had a pretty good season and we thought that we would do fairly well but I don’t think we ever expected this. We started off the week with two losses and we weren’t even sure we would make playoffs but once we found out we would be in playoffs, everything came together. We probably played the best game of the week in the final. I’m really proud of the team.”
Before facing Team Daniels, the girls beat Team Buchy of Kimberley 8-7 and Team Bowles of Royal City — the number two side after round-robin play — 7-3 in the first two playoff games. In the final, Reese-Hansen jumped out to an early lead with a steal of two in the first end. It was a tight, well executed game throughout. After 10 ends, the teams were tied five-five, requiring an extra end. In the 11th, Reese-Hansen made a great hit-and-stick with last rock on a partially buried stone to win the game — and punch the team’s ticket to nationals.
Koster is one of three players from the Victoria rink who will represent Camosun College at a national event later in the season.