With files from Ontario University Athletics

GUELPH, Ont. - The Western Mustangs women's curling team earned a silver medal at the 2012 OUA Curling Championships and will advance to the CIS Championships to be held March 14-18 at the Welland Curling Club.

The Western women's team of Caitlin Romain (Skip), Nicole Westlund, Holly Donaldson, Erin Daniel and Jenna Mason went 5-1 in preliminary play at the Championships and then slipped past the Brock Badgers, 5-4, in a Semi-Final matchup to earn a spot in the gold-medal game. But the Laurier Golden Hawks avenged an early round loss to the Mustangs by taking the final, 8-4, to earn their second straight OUA title.

In the contest, Western was able to steal one from the veteran Laurier team in the first end. The Golden Hawks responded immediately, though, as Laura Crocker (Skip) made a draw for three in the second to take a lead. Western responded by putting up two in the third, before stealing one in the fourth to take 4-3 lead into the fourth end break.

Coming out of the break, Laurier evened the score with a single in the fifth end before stealing two each in the sixth and seventh to take home the victory.

Western's men's team, meanwhile, also had a successful preliminary round, going 4-1 before entering their Semi-Final match against Carleton. Unfortunately, the Ravens ousted the Mustangs 5-2 in that contest to end Western's gold-medal hopes. Skip Mike Fleming and his starting team of Brett DeKoning, Joey Lanthier, Peter Myslik, and subs Kyle Paradis and Myles Phinney were then beaten 6-5 by the Toronto Varsity Blues in the bronze-medal game.

The Waterloo Warriors took home the gold medal for the first time since 2004-05. Thanks to an early morning tie breaker, the Warriors won three games on the tournament's final day to earn their seventh OUA Curling Championship banner in school history.

The Waterloo and Carleton men, and the Laurier and Western women will now join host Brock Badgers men's and women's teams as OUA representatives at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport/Canadian Curling Association Championships, which will be held from March 14-18 at the Welland Curling Club in Welland, Ont.