Victoria rink wins extra end and B.C. junior curling title
Taylor Reese-Hansen took advantage of Sarah Daniel’s key miscue in the 10th end to score a 6-5 extra-end win in the Boston Pizza B.C. Junior Women’s Curling Championship on Saturday afternoon at the Langley Curling Club.
Reese-Hansen and her Victoria Curling Club rink of third Catera Park, second Jordan Koster, lead Sydney Brilz and coach Todd Troyer now advance to the 2018 New Holland Canadian Junior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships, Jan. 13-21, at the Centre municipal de curling de Shawinigan and the Aréna Grand-Mère in Que.
This is the first year that Reese-Hansen, originally from Kitimat, has been a skip and this is her first B.C. championship.
“It feels amazing. We had a pretty good season and we thought that we would do fairly well, but I don’t think we ever expected this,” Reese-Hansen said after the victory.
“We started off the week with two losses and we weren’t even sure we would make playoffs, but once we found out we would be in playoffs, everything came together. We probably played the best game of the week in the final. I’m really proud of the team.”
Down 5-4 in the 10th end, Daniels had the end set up for what could have been a gameclinching deuce, but her draw with her first stone came up five feet short. Instead, she was forced to take one with last-rock advantage and Reese-Hansen’s VCC team kept its composure for a hit and stick for one in the 11th end.
Daniels, who finished the round-robin 6-1, never led in the final. Reese-Hansen, who battled to a 4-3 mark during the week, took the long route to get the championship game and finished the job.
Reese-Hansen could have drawn full fourfoot for the win, but elected to hit Daniels’ stone, which was three-quarters exposed. It was a clutch victory for the VCC rink, which immediately celebrated with family in the crowd after shaking hands.
In the junior men’s final, defending champ Tyler Tardi and his Langley rink made it two wins in arrow with a defensive 3-1 win over Dawson Ballard of Royal City.