Ursel narrowly misses podium at senior nationals

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This article was published 29/03/2019 (2591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although Terry Ursel and Team Manitoba finished the Canadian senior women’s curling championship on a five-game losing skid, they started the week well enough to accomplish a lofty goal.

After starting 6-1, Ursel and her Arden-based team of Wanda Rainka, Brenda Walker and Tracy Igonia stumbled into the playoffs, and finished fourth after losing 8-3 to Alberta’s Glenys Bakker in Thursday’s the third-place game at senior curling nationals on Thursday in Chilliwack, B.C.

It’s an improvement on Ursel’s last nationals appearance two years ago, when she cruised through pool play but collapsed in the championship pool, missing the playoffs entirely. For that, the group is satisfied — their goal was to finish in the top four.

“We were very proud of ourselves, we are very proud of how we did. We know, obviously, that we can execute better, but we’re still proud of the week as a whole,” Igonia said. “I’m really proud of how we all stuck together and were supportive of each other, and we really hung tight. Even though we were down in a few games, we still believed we had a chance to come back and worked hard to do that.”

The bronze-medal game started out the way Ursel wanted, forcing Bakker to a single and countering with a deuce in the second, however, Alberta replied with a big three to lead 4-2.

They traded singles before Alberta stole one in the sixth and two in the seventh, leading to handshakes in a game the Manitobans feel was much closer than the score suggests.

“It was just a shot here or there that made a whole difference in an end,” Igonia said. “If we had just executed a little better, we could have been so tight with them. Just a little miss here and there, and you’re giving up a big end and it’s hard to come back from that.”

Ursel started with a 5-1 record in the preliminary round to reach the championship pool, then added one more win over Northern Ontario’s Kim Beaudry, 4-2 on Tuesday morning. That was the last victory she would earn.

Manitoba was on the right end of a three-way tie for fourth after three championship-pool losses. Still with a chance to turn it around and reach the final, Ursel’s hopes were quickly dashed when Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh jumped out to an early lead en route to an 8-3 semifinal win.

In the semifinal, it was Ontario’s steal of three in the third that proved costly for Manitoba. Ursel responded with a single, the surrendered a deuce and couldn’t climb out of a 6-1 hole. Other than the preliminary-round game against Ontario, Manitoba battled everyone close all week.

“We had some really tight games, it’s always great competition at this level. We were happy to be sitting at a good position going into the championship round, that was very key,” Igonia said. “Obviously we were a little disappointed with the execution, but that’s going to happen. We’re not used to this long of a week of curling, and the competition’s great so you have to be mentally tough and physically tough.

“As the week went on, we didn’t lose our determination — we always had that — it’s just that we weren’t as sharp as we wanted to be.”

In the end, Manitoba’s only losses came by way of two each to Ontario and Alberta, one to British Columbia’s Marilou Richter, and one to Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson, who beat Middaugh 11-7 in an extra end in the final.

“Those ladies have a lot of experience at this level and at higher levels, and experience being in final games and games that mean a lot,” Igonia said. “There are really great teams here, and we’re really proud to be fourth. Of course we waned to do better, but we’re proud of where we ended up.”

Anderson came up with two threes and a four in the extra end to beat Ontario in the gold-medal game. They will represent Canada at senior worlds in 2020.

On the men’s side, Manitoba didn’t fare much better.

Dave Boehmer and his team from the Petersfield Curling Club coughed up a five to Alberta’s Wade White in the sixth end of a 10-3 bronze-medal loss.

Earlier, Manitoba lost 5-1 to Saskatchewan’s Bruce Korte in the semifinals Thursday morning. Korte completed his undefeated run to gold with an 8-4 triumph over Ontario’s Bryan Cochrane in the final.

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