A challenging third day of action at the FISU Winter World University Games left the GB Students men’s and women’s teams with considerable work to do to reach the play-offs in Torino.
Arran Thomson, Ross Craik, Kaleb Johnson and Rory MacNair were first in action and they put up a strong fight against China to lead heading down the last after having been 4-1 behind, only to concede a two at the final end and go down 6-5.
They then suffered an 8-3 defeat to Norway in their second match of the day, leaving them on a record of one win and three losses, ahead of their day four meetings with Sweden and hosts Italy.
“Those were two tough games today,” acknowledged skip Thomson. 
“We fought really hard to keep in it all the way to the end and in our first game we were a wee bit unfortunate coming down the last and lots of lessons learned from that second game.
“We know we are close to where we want to be, it’s just fine tuning our processes to get the best out of each other and make the most of every shot and we know what we are capable of tomorrow.”
Laura Watt, Amy Mitchell, Holly Wilkie-Milne and Lisa Davie also suffered two defeats on the day, losing 11-1 to Canada and 6-3 to Norway, leaving them continuing to look for their first win as they head into meetings with Japan on day four.
“We faced a really strong Canada team and we didn’t have our best game, then we faced Norway and had a better game, but just came out on the wrong side, “ said skip Watt.
“We’ve taken a lot of positives out of both games however, because we’re reading the ice a lot better and making a lot more shots, so we’re just going to keep on building with that and take that into tomorrow’s game against Japan.
“We’re only four games into the round-robin, so we’ve got five more matches to get wins on the board, so we’re going to just go out there give it our all and keep on enjoying this atmosphere.”
GB Students Women’s Team
Laura Watt (University of Highlands and Islands - Perth College UHI)
Amy Mitchell (University of Stirling)
Holly Wilkie-Milne (University of Stirling)
Lisa Davie (The Open University)
Cara Davidson (Edinburgh Napier University)
GB Students Men’s Team
Arran Thomson (The Open University)
Ross Craik (University of Abertay)
Kaleb Johnson (University of Stirling)
Rory MacNair (Edinburgh Napier University)
Fraser Swanston (SRUC)
Head Coach – Nancy Smith
Women’s Coach – Luke Carson
Men’s Coach – Niall Ryder
Schedule:
Wednesday 15 January
GB Men
GB – Korea 3-5
Thursday 16 January
GB Women
GB – Korea 3-6
GB Men
GB – Ukraine 8-6
GB Women
GB – China 7-8
Friday 17 January
GB Men
GB –China 5-6
GB Women
GB – Canada 1-11
GB Men
GB – Norway 3-8
GB Women
GB – Norway 3-6
Saturday 18 January
GB Men – 0800
GB – Sweden
GB Women – 1300
GB – Japan
GB Men – 1800
GB – Italy
Sunday 19 January
GB Women – 0700
GB – USA
GB Men - 1100
GB – Switzerland
GB Women – 1500
GB – Poland
GB Men - 1900
GB – USA
Monday 20 January
GB Women 0800
GB – Italy
GB Men - 1300
GB – Canada
GB Women - 1800
GB – Sweden
Tuesday 21 January
Men Semi Final 1 - 0700
Men Semi Final 2 - 1100
Women Semi Final 1 - 1500
Women Semi Final 2 - 1900
Wednesday 22 January
Women Bronze Medal Game - 1300
Men Bronze Medal Game - 1800
Thursday 23 January
Women Gold Medal Game - 0900
Men Gold Medal Game - 1300
Please click here for results.
