Upsets continue at Scotties in Rivers

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This article was published 30/01/2020 (2221 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RIVERS — Another day at the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts, another upset.

The lone southern representative, Jen Clark-Rouire (1-2) out of Miami, upset fourth-ranked Beth Peterson (2-1) from Assiniboine Memorial 8-5 in the mid-afternoon draw on Thursday.

Tracy Fleury (3-0) beat East St. Paul clubmate Theresa Cannon (1-2) by a score of 11-3 and Kristy Watling (2-1) earned an 11-3 victory over Jennifer Briscoe (0-3) in the other afternoon games.

In a game that had many lead changes, the key end came in the ninth when Clark-Rouire (1-2) was able to score three. Despite having the hammer in the 10th, Peterson ran out of rocks and conceded for her first loss of the provincial women’s curling championship.

“It hurts,” Peterson said after the game. “Unfortunately that puts a lot more pressure on tomorrow’s two-game day when we’re playing (Fleury) so that’s something we need to deal with. They played great and we just didn’t come out firing.”

Tied 5-5 in the ninth, Clark-Rouire weighted a perfect shot to knock out one of Peterson’s stones with the brick, giving her a healthy 8-5 lead she was able to hold on to.

“I was hoping for that,” Clark-Rouire said. “(Third) Lisa (McLeod) called perfect line, my sweepers did everything right and I just threw it close and they managed it quickly.”

This year’s event has seen two upsets, including Abby Ackland’s 6-5 win over Kerri Einarson on Wednesday. Clark-Rouire has no issue with the way the 12-team tournament is set up.

“I’ll take any format I can get, I’m just so happy to be here, we all are,” she said.

“It’s just such a special event no matter what. We definitely don’t commit the same amount of time as some of those top-tier teams do so we have a different perspective. I do appreciate that CurlManitoba is trying to do their best to make everything work and that’s a hard job.”

Following the loss to Clark-Rouire, Peterson’s team had a team meeting where coach Cathy Gauthier was able to return the team to their “good spirits,” Peterson said.

The new format means there are fewer games, which is something Peterson said they may not be accustomed to, but wasn’t about to say that was why they lost.

“Was it because we only played one game today and we’re not used to that? I don’t know, I think that’s just an excuse,” she said. “I think they were on their game and they played really good and we had a tough time with the ice today.”

It’s Clark-Rouire’s fifth Scotties as a player. Although she hails from Winnipeg, her second, Jolene Callum is from Miami, and she said the community of just over 400 people in southern Manitoba cheers them on.

“We do make it out to Miami to curl and the community there is so supportive of us, it’s nice to sort of represent that small little town,” she said.

Peterson has a quick turnaround, playing Watling today at 8:30 a.m., and she’ll play the defending champion Fleury at 4 p.m.

“We’re going to have a chill night and forget about it,” Peterson said. “As long as (today) goes well I hope I can look back on (the loss) positively.”

Clark-Rouire, will play Fleury at 8:30 a.m., before taking on Thompson’s Briscoe (0-3) at 4 p.m.

• • •

Brandon’s Janelle Vachon is settling in at her first Scotties as a skip.

In her opening game Thursday, Vachon (0-3) lost a close battle to Assiniboine’s Ackland (being skipped by Hailey Ryan) 5-4 after Vachon’s last rock went sailing through the house, failing to take out the lone Ackland stone on the button. It was a better performance than their 11-3 loss to Ackland’s clubmate, Darcy Robertson (1-2) on Wednesday.

“It was good, we finally settled in, we had a bit of a rough first game yesterday,” Vachon said after her first game Thursday. “We played some simpler ends in the beginning and just got the feel a bit better, everyone was a little bit more settled by the end of the game.”

This is the first season Vachon’s team, comprised of lead Hayley Surovy, second Megan Huculak and third Dori-Anne Vince, have curled together. It is also Huculak’s first-ever provincials, so there were some of nerves to start the tournament.

“A lot of people are here from around home watching and we’re just trying to perform our best so we’re putting a lot of pressure on ourselves when we probably shouldn’t,” she said with a laugh.

The Westman crowd has certainly cheered harder for Vachon’s team, and they are drawing a bigger crowd than the other draws. It’s also partly because Jones and Kerri Einarson are in the same group as Vachon.

“We have a ton (of support), lots of family there’s tons of people here supporting me from Oak Lake and Virden so that’s awesome,” Vachon said. “Hayley being from Rivers, that draws a huge crowd, there’s just tons of people you wouldn’t expect to see, there’s supporters from all over.”

Vachon said she isn’t star struck by the big names at this tournament, but an opportunity to learn from some of the best curlers in the world.

“It is nice to get the opportunity to play other teams,” Vachon said. “Mainly like for us, playing in Rivers, hometown action kind of thing, but it is nice to play those bigger teams and learn from it.”

Vachon said specifically that she can watch how teams like Jones and Einarson consistently land shots.

“That’s the biggest thing,” she said. “(You can) pay attention to their team dynamic, the communication out there, that’s something we can work on and seeing those big teams and how they go about it.”

Vachon fell 11-5 to Jennifer Jones (3-0) in the late draw.

Vachon concludes round-robin play today with games against Einarson (2-1) at 12:15 p.m., and fellow Westman rink, Arden’s Terry Ursel (0-2) at 7:45 p.m.

• • •

Jones, the third-ranked team at this event looks like a team on a mission. She beat Darcy Robertson 12-4 in resounding fashion as she recorded four points in the third and eighth ends, signalling the end of the game.

“We feel pretty good, we love the atmosphere in the building, love Rivers and the ice has been awesome,” Jones said following her morning game. “We’re throwing it pretty good right now so hopefully that can continue.”

Jones, the 2018 world champion and six-time national winner, said her rank at this tournament is something she’s not paying much attention to.

“That stuff doesn’t matter at all to us to be honest,” she said. “Especially the way the format is, for us it doesn’t make much of a difference. We just wanted to come and play well for us and give ourselves a chance at the (national) Scotties in (Moose Jaw).”

In the other morning game, Einarson beat Ursel 11-4.

Einarson beat Robertson 8-3 while Ackland (3-0) snagged a deuce in the 10th to edge Ursel (0-3) by a score of 7-6.

» rstelter@brandonsun.com

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