By Lauren LevyThe Daily Northwestern

As an undergraduate at Cornell University, Blake Stevens enjoyed playing on one of the school’s curling teams.

That’s why the current Northwestern graduate student helped start the Northwestern University Curling Club two years ago.

Fellow second-year engineering graduate student Michelle Mok, who also curled at her undergraduate school, was the club’s other founder.

Next month, the team will compete in Chicago against about 40 other college teams from across the country in the National College Bonspiel.

“I think there will be some pretty good competition,” Stevens said. “It’s fun to know people from everywhere and to go out and have a good time.”

“It’s the perfect team sport because everyone has a hand in all parts of the game,” Mok said. “You don’t have to be extremely athletic to do it.”

Curling involves three four-person teams taking turns pushing two 42-pound stones down a sheet of ice toward a 12-foot bulls-eye. Each player holds a broom and wears Teflon shoes to make it easier to slide on the ice.

The goal is to have more stones near the bulls-eye than the other team by the end of the match.

After receiving no funding from NU when it started, the club recently got $3,000 through a Graduate School community-building initiative, according to Mok.

The money enables the club to pay for the equipment it needs as well as practice fees to use the North Shore Country Club’s curling rink.

This year, Stevens said the club has grown to about 45 members. About 12 to 16 will participate in the tournament.

“We basically chose the people that have been the most dedicated,” Stevens said. “If they put in the effort, they get to go in the tournament.”

Although she couldn’t make it to last year’s national tournament, second-year nanotechnology graduate student Andrea Ho played for the team at the regional tournament in December.

She said she had fun at that competition and is looking forward to the Bonspiel.

“It’s an opportunity to do some more curling, improve my game and play in a real game situation where there is a little more pressure,” Ho said.

Stevens said he is excited and also confident about the upcoming tournament.

“I think we are going to be pretty competitive,” Stevens said. “Our goal is to bring back a couple of medals for NU. It should be fun and I definitely expect to win.”

Reach Lauren Levy at [email protected].