By Pablo Medina
The Nepean Knights could not have imagined a worse start to their OFSAA girls’ curling championships.
After travelling seven hours to the bottom corner of the province in Sarnia, the Nepean High School lineup of skip Sarah Adair, third Zoe McNeil, second Eden Stanfield, lead Emma Forster and fifth Jenna Zaitlin were promptly stomped 16-3 in their opening match against Barrie’s Bear Creek Secondary School.
“The first game was a total disaster,” said Knights coach Tara Topping. “But what gave us a lot of excitement was that after the first game, which was a disaster, rather than being discouraged, they actually were completely fired up.
“They felt like they’d kind of gotten it out of their system and that they had been able to figure out the ice, which is a really big thing in curling.”
Nepean quickly bounced back at the Mar. 19-22 event, and wound up reeling off five consecutive wins to advance all the way to the high school provincial final.
The Knights rebounded with 8-5, 8-1 and 7-5 victories over opponents from North Bay, Toronto and West Niagara to earn a a spot in the quarterfinals, where they secured a place in the medal round with a commanding 9-2 win over Peterborough’s Holy Cross.
Their strong form continued throughout the semifinals, where they took down Kingston’s Frontenac 7-2 before falling 7-3 to a well-organized St. Ignatius team from Thunder Bay and taking the silver medal.
“After the gold medal game, a lot of teams would have kind of run to the change room and been very upset,” Topping noted. “Of course, they were disappointed that they hadn’t won. It was a close game. But the Nepean girls stood at the door and clapped the other team off the ice. They cheered, they hooted and hollered for their success.”
More than a medal for skip
Adair previously represented Nepean at the 2023 OFSAA curling championships in her Grade 10 year, when her team fell one match short of the medals with a quarterfinal loss. South Carleton earned the national capital’s berth at OFSAA in 2024 and won a silver medal, which made 2025 Adair’s last chance to win a prize with her school.
“I think it was a lot more exciting than it was the first time,” Adair reflected. “I’m in Grade 12 now, so it was the last year that I could make it. So it was kind of the big goal for the year one last OFSAA before we graduate.”
Adair also skips an under-18 team out of the Manotick Curling Club, which includes Hannah Robert, who played with Pierre-Savard’s team in the OFSAA boys’ division and went 1-3. Her Manotick team went 2-5 at the Ontario club provincials, with four of their five losses by just one point.
That also gave the high school provincials a little added significance.
“This is just another big accomplishment for me in my curling career personally,” Adair said with pride, noting that she’d made it her mission to come back stronger after the 2023 quarterfinal defeat.
Overall, Adair said curling has taught her invaluable lessons in resilience, teamwork, and leadership, while also fostering lasting friendships that have shaped her both on and off the ice.
“It’s taught me a lot of leadership. I’ve had a big leadership role this year and in previous years too,” added Adair, who savoured the silver medal earned in her final high school tournament.
“Two of the other players, we’ve been playing together since we were like eight or seven or eight,” she highlighted. “It’s been a team that I’ve been with since I was young and we’ve played together for so long.”
OFSAA hockey silver
Another team from the national capital was also an OFSAA silver medal winner the same week.
At the Mar. 18-20 OFSAA A/AA Girls’ Hockey Championships in Sudbury, the St. Mark Lions won five games in a row to reach the final before taking the silver medal with a 6-0 defeat to Stratford’s St. Michael in their sixth game within three days.
Grace Lalande scored the lone goal in St. Mark’s 1-0 semi-final victory over Simcoe Composite.
