CALGARY – It’s a loss Krista McCarville won’t soon forget.
The Northern Ontario skip had unbeaten Alberta, skipped by Serena Sturmay, right where she wanted them, leading 6-1 through four ends at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary.
It wasn’t meant to be.
Sturmay fought back to score two in the fifth, when McCarville’s attempt at a double only cleared one Alberta rock, and Sturmay made the hit-and-stick for two to cut the gap to 6-3.
McCarville, curling with third Andrea Kelly, second Kendra Lilly and lead Ashley Sippala, was forced to one in the sixth, then gave up another deuce in the seventh and her lead was cut to 7-5.
Sturmay (6-0) stole one in the eighth, then three more in the ninth to take a stunning 9-7 lead. McCarville put up two in the 10th to send the game to an extra end, but without hammer in the 11th, she couldn’t orchestrate a steal and dropped a disappointing 10-9 decision.
Team Northern Ontario now sits at 3-3 in Pool A, in a four-way tie for fourth place with Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia.
Alberta leads the way at 6-0 and four-time defending champion Kerri Einarson is second at 5-1. Saskatchewan’s Skylar Ackerman improved to 4-3 with a 9-6 win over Newfoundland and Labrador.
McCarville takes on Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday and wraps up round-robin play on Thursday afternoon against Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes, one of the four teams tied at 3-3.
