Elizabeth Cousins

Elizabeth Cousins (born June 21, 1999) is an American curler from Nashua, New Hampshire.^[2] She is a three-time national runner-up in women's curling. She currently is skip of her own team.

Elizabeth Cousins first competed at the United States Junior Curling Championship in 2015. They finished round robin with a 2-7 record. In 2016 she competed again and improved to a 4-5 record. In 2017 she competed again and finished 2-5.^[3]

In 2017 USA Curling began a U18 National Championship to further promote youth curling. Cousins qualified for the inaugural event. She went undefeated 5-0 in round robin and qualified for the playoffs. She won the semi-final and lost in the final to Cait Flannery.^[4]

Cousins did not qualify for the 2018 United States Junior Curling Championship but returned in 2019 where she went 3-4 in round robin and finished 4th place just barely missing playoffs. 2020 would be Cousin's last year of eligibility. Long time lead Sydney Mullaney left the team to join Delaney Strouse's junior rink. Elizabeth Cousins would team up with Ariel Traxler. Ariel was team skip but threw lead stones and Elizabeth Cousins threw skip stones. 2020 was her final Junior Curling Championship, she finished round robin with a 3-4 record missing playoffs.

Team Traxler played in the 2020 United States Women's Challenge Round and finished in 2nd place which qualified them for the 2020 United States Women's Curling Championship.^[5] They went 4-3 and made playoffs. They lost to eventual runner up Jamie Sinclair in the semifinals and finished 3rd place. Their season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having aged out of Juniors, Elizabeth Cousins left Team Traxler who returned to focus on Junior Curling. In March 2020 Jamie Sinclair's team that beat Elizabeth in the semifinals disbanded.^[6] Later in the off-season it was announced that Sinclair had formed a new team, bringing Monica Walker out of her short retirement to play at third, and adding two young curlers for the front end, Cora Farrell and Elizabeth Cousins.^[7] The team was not able to compete in any tour events due to the pandemic, but they were able to play in the 2021 United States Women's Curling Championship, held May 26–30 in Wausau, Wisconsin. There, they topped the round robin with an undefeated 6–0 record, which qualified them directly to the championship final where they faced Team Cory Christensen, Sinclair's former teammates.^[8] After trailing early, Team Sinclair tied the game in the eighth end, but couldn't hold on for the win as Christensen scored two points in the extra end to win 8–6.^[9]

The following season, Team Sinclair began by winning the 2021 Oakville Fall Classic, defeating Suzanne Birt 8–6 in the final game. Later in the season, they won another tour event at the Atkins Curling Supplies Classic with a 10–4 win over Kristy Watling in the championship final. They reached the final of the US Open of Curling, losing to the Tabitha Peterson rink 8–5 in the final. They also had a semifinal finish at the 2021 Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic and a quarterfinal finish at the 2021 Oakville Labour Day Classic.^[10] Team Sinclair then played in the 2021 United States Olympic Curling Trials, held November 12 to 21 at the Baxter Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. Despite entering the Trials as the second ranked team, the team did not have a good performance, failing to reach the playoff round with a 4–6 record, finishing third.^[11] Team Sinclair ended the 2021–22 season with a semifinal loss at the Curl Mesabi Classic. They disbanded following the season.

For the 2022-23 season, Elizabeth would join Madison Bear's Women's U-25 national team replacing Taylor Brees as Second.^[12] They would win the 2022 Curling Stadium Contender Series qualifying them for the 2023 United States Women's Curling Championship. They would finish 4th at Nationals that year. That off-season, Madison Bear would leave the team to focus on mixed doubles with Aiden Oldenberg. The team would shake up positions with Elizabeth moving to Skip and Allison Howell moving to Second. Elizabeth Cousins reunited with former junior teammate Elizabeth Janiak who joined the team as lead after previously serving as an Alternate.^[13]