The defending OUA champion McMaster Marauders women's curling team went 1-1 on the first day of OUA Women's Curling Championship on Friday in Waterloo, Ont.
 
In their first qualifying match of the day, the Marauders took on the Queen's Gaels at 9am, falling just short of a victory. Queen's began the match with the advantage, taking the last stone in the first end, and continued this pattern for two scoreless ends until earning one point in the third and passing the hammer over to McMaster.
 
McMaster held the hammer through a scoreless fourth end and took an unfortunate upset in both the fifth and sixth ends, as Queen's stole a point in each, bringing the match to 3-0.

Urging for a comeback, the Marauders took the seventh end by one, keeping themselves from leaving the match scoreless. With the upper hand going into the eighth and final end, Queen's earned themselves one last one point and took the game 4-1. McMaster is familiar with battling it out with the Gaels at the OUAs, having topped them for the gold medal in the last Championship played.
 
Queen's has been one of the teams to beat for the last couple of seasons, as they were the defending champions going into the 2020 gold medal game against McMaster, but fell to the Marauders 7-5.
 
After a tough first match of this season's OUAs, McMaster came back strong and with perseverance in their second game of the day against the Brock Badgers. Unlike the match against Queen's, McMaster started off with the advantage and it worked in their favour, as they took the first end 1-0.
 
The match ensued in back-and-forth play with the hammer earning a point and passing it off for the next three ends. However, in the fifth set, with the score tied at two, McMaster broke the trend ending with two stones closest to the button.
 
Moving into the sixth set, McMaster led 4-2, but Brock pushed hard to make a comeback, scoring one in the sixth and stealing a point in the seventh. Tied at four, the Marauders had the hammer going into the final end, earning the point that they needed to take the game 5-4.
 
Now 1-1 in the tournament, McMaster currently sits in second place in Pool C behind the undefeated Rams.
 
The Marauders look to take the other two teams in Pool C on Saturday, the final day of the qualifying round — they will face the Toronto Varsity Blues at 9am and the Rams at 2pm.