SCOTTIES: Zacharias earns bye to Sunday’s final
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/12/2021 (1641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
CARBERRY – Heading into the final draw of the championship group at the 2022 Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Altona’s Mackenzie Zacharias knew that she needed to win her game in order to make the playoffs or end up in a tiebreaker later that night.
Thanks to her 6-5 victory over Kaitlyn Jones and Darcy Robertson’s 7-5 triumph over Kristy Watling on Saturday afternoon, Zacharias has earned a bye straight into the provincial final, which gets underway at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Carberry Plains Recreation Centre.
The winner of that game will go on to represent Manitoba at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont. from Jan. 28-Feb. 6.
Zacharias, Watling and Jones all had 6-2 records, but Zacharias held the advantage in the head-to-head tiebreaker by winning both her games against the Assiniboine Memorial rinks.
“I’m still not really sure how that all happened, but we’ll take it,” Zacharias smiled.
Zacharias, who plays alongside third Karlee Burgess, second Emily Zacharias and lead Lauren Lenentine, beat Jones in dramatic fashion as she drew to a piece of the button on her final shot in the 10th end.
It was the fourth win in a row for the 2020 Canadian and World Junior champion, who needed to beat Beth Pederson in her Asham Express Red Group finale Friday just to stay in the tournament.
“We definitely had a little bit of a slow start to our week,” Zacharias said. “We weren’t really feeling it out there and we weren’t playing our game.
“We got into a position where we couldn’t lose anymore and we stepped it up a little bit. We got back into our groove and we’ve been getting better each game. I’m excited to see what happens Sunday.”
Watling, who is joined on her team by third Hailey Ryan, second Emilie Rafnson and lead Sarah Pyke, was disappointed to have missed out on the bye into the final but was happy with how well her team was playing ahead of the semifinal, which will get underway at 10 a.m.
“Our first championship group game (a 10-2 loss to Zacharias on Friday night) didn’t go very well, but since then we’ve been trending upwards,” Watling said. “We played really well against Darcy today and I think we can build off that going into Sunday.
“We’re staying patient and we’re doing a really good job of not getting down if we miss shots. We’re all there to help each other out when we need it.”
Jones was thrilled to earn a spot in the playoffs as this week marks the first time that the 2018 Canadian and World Junior champion has competed at a women’s provincial.
“This is an exciting moment for our entire team (which includes third Abby Ackland, second Robyn Njegovan and lead Sara Oliver) and we feel like we have a chance to come out and win here,” Jones said.
“When we played such a great game against the number one team in the world (Tracy Fleury) and came away with the win (on Wednesday), that really set the tone for our entire week. We’ve continued to play well since then and we’ve all made great shots.”
Zacharias’ win also marked the end of the playoff hopes for Robertson (5-3), Fleury (5-3) and Kristy McDonald (4-4).
It was a tough week for Fleury’s East St. Paul rink, who entered the competition as the number one seed and were coming off of a runner-up showing at the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Saskatoon last month.
“We weren’t at our sharpest this week and it was just a miss here or there that cost us,” Fleury said.
“In the games that we lost, the other teams played great. There was some very tough competition this week.”
The Fleury rink is likely to earn a second chance at making the national championship, however, as they expect to earn a spot in the wild card play-in game on Jan. 28 because they have a massive lead over the next closest teams in the Canadian Trials Ranking System standings.
“We’ve played in that game before (in 2020 against Jennifer Jones in Moose Jaw) and we’re certainly grateful to have a second opportunity,” Fleury said.
“We’re going to enjoy some rest over the holidays and try to come back at our best to be Team Wild Card in Thunder Bay.”