Two wins on the final day of round-robin play at the FISU Winter World University Games were enough to take Robyn Munro and Orrin Carson to top spot in the mixed doubles rankings and let them enjoy the bonus of knowing they do not have to get up early on medals day after attending the Opening Ceremony.
It promised to be a particularly special event for Stranraer 21-year-old Munro after she was chosen to be the flag bearer for GB Students and Carson was also looking forward to it after they achieved their first major objective, finishing level with Canada on six wins and just one loss, but finishing ahead because they had won their head-to-head encounter.
GB Students will face Italy in the second of the semi-finals which gets underway at 1pm local time (12 noon GMT), after Canada once again meet Germany after denying them top spot by beating them in their last round-robin match. 
“We’re really happy that we managed to claim top spot after a hard fought victory over Norway and with Canada doing us a little favour by beating Germany,” said the 19-year-old from Dumfries.
“That gives us a long lie in the morning, which I think we’ll both need and we’ll be ready to go by one o’clock.
“It’s a great honour for Robyn to be nominated as the flag bearer which I’m sure she’ll really enjoy.
“We’ll all head down to the Opening Ceremony and it should be a great night.”
Having suffered their only defeat when they started the second day against Germany at 9am, the British pair once again got off to a slow start on day three when they conceded a five to Japan at the second end of that match.
When the Japanese pair then stole at the next to move 6-2 ahead, it was looking bleak for Munro and Carson, especially when they were forced to score just one at the next.
However they emerged from the midway break invigorated and dominated the second half of the match, a steal of three at the fifth end levelling the match and the momentum shift was accentuated when their opponents took their powerplay at the sixth end, only for Munro and Carson to steal two more and move in front.
Yet another steal at the seventh then secured the 9-6 scoreline which ensured their place in the play-offs.
“We knew we weren’t playing very well in the Japan game, but they’d given up a few steals earlier on in the week, so we knew that if we could put them under pressure we would give ourselves a great chance and that’s what we did. We got the message that we needed,” said Carson.
Attention then switched to pursuit of last stone advantage in the semi-finals which they could secure by beating Norway who had only won one match and while they had to work hard to claim their 7-5 win, they got that added bonus of finishing top when the Canadians defeated Germany.
“The Norway game we played ok and did enough to win,” said Carson.
“We were in a battle right from the start and that’s a real positive, knowing that we can win games even when we’re not playing at our best which we’ll look to take into tomorrow as well.”
They know they will also have to deal with facing the home favourites in the semi-final after the Italians claimed the last play-off spot by beating Switzerland to finish on a record of four wins and three losses, but the young Scots believe they can feed off that energy.
“Having played them once before we know the crowd will be noisy and they were exceptionally loud today, but that’ll only help us because we’re used to playing in front of big crowds and our support will be right behind us too,” said Carson.
Schedule:
Saturday 11 January
MD1
GB – USA 7-6
MD2
GB – Switzerland 8-5
Sunday 12 January
MD3
GB – Germany 4-10
MD4
GB – Canada 7-6
MD5
GB – Italy 9-3
Monday 13 January
MD6
GB – Japan 9-6 Qualified
MD7
GB – Norway 7-5
Tuesday 14 January
08.00 Semi Final 1
12.00 Semi Final 2
16.00 Bronze Medal Game
19.00 Gold Medal Game
GB Students Mixed Doubles Team
Robyn Munro (University of Strathclyde)
Orrin Carson (Dumfries and Galloway College)
Mixed Doubles Coach: Scott Andrews
Head Coach: Nancy Smith
Please click here for results.
Image: Jack Hodgetts