THUNDER BAY – The dream of winning a Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship at home is all but over for Team Northern Ontario.
The Thunder Bay-based rink on Monday dropped their fourth straight game at the national women’s curling championship, falling 9-3 to British Columbia’s Corryn Brown, leaving skip Krista McCarville at a loss what she needs to do to right the ship.
The 42-year-old and her teammates, lead Ashey Sippala, second Kendra Lilly and third Andrea Kelly, have struggled with strategy all week, putting McCarville in near impossible situations when it comes time for her to throw skip stones.
The trend continued on Monday, Brown picking up steals of one in the third and fourth ends and a game-changing two in the seventh that all but put the game out of reach, much to dismay of the partisan Fort William Gardens crowd, who gathered on Family Day to see if the Northern Ontario team could turn things around.
While it doesn’t look great, Lilly said the team is still going to give it their all.
“I guess if there’s still a shot that we still have a chance, then we’re still going to go out and play our best every game and I think we just haven’t been ourselves yet. So I think for ourselves and all the fans in Thunder Bay, we just want to go out and play like we know we can and put up some good shots and ends together and see what happens,” Lilly said.
Once again it was stolen ends that led to Northern Ontario’s downfall.
The team gave up steals in five of the nine ends the played in Draw 7 on Monday, and have given up nine through four games, the most of any team in the 18-team field.
“(The other teams) seem to be getting one of theirs into the right place every time and then it’s tough to get it out. We’re just not making those key shots,” McCarville said.
After blanking the first end, Northern Ontario forced Brown to one in the second, but then McCarville was faced a tough draw to the button in in the third and bounced off Brown’s shot stone. One end later she was long on her draw for one.
McCarville did get back on even ground in the fifth, making a hit for three, but promptly gave two of them back in the sixth, Brown getting her second point on a measurement.
She couldn’t make a tricky double takeout in the seventh and surrendered two more, and fell behind 7-3.
At that point, the writing was on the wall. B.C. continued to play aggressively, filling the house with rocks, leading to steals in the eighth and ninth.
One sheet over, Nancy Martin treated herself to a birthday gift, surviving a late surge by New Brunswick’s Melissa Adams to pull out a 7-5 win, improving to 3-1.
At 52, the grandmother of one is one of the oldest players in the field, but finds herself in the heart of contention midway through the round robin.
There’s nowhere else she’d rather be.
“It’s always good to get a win on your birthday. It’s better than sitting at home pouting, watching the Scotties,” said the Saskatchewan skip.
“It was a big win this morning, but it’s a tough game this afternoon, so we’re going to have to come out firing.”
Martin, in a three-way tie for second with Brown and Alberta’s Kayla Skrlik, takes on defending champion Rachel Homan and Team Canada on Monday night.
In other action, Prince Edward Island nudged Nunavut 7-6 and Skrlik eked out a 6-5 Battle of Alberta win over Selena Sturmay.
