Tippin, Howard earn playoff spots
Tiebreakers needed to determine who moves on at Road to the Roar
Unlike nine other women’s teams competing at the 2017 Road to the Roar curling pre-trials in Charlottetown, P.E.I., Julie Tippin could breathe a sigh of relief early Friday evening.
She knew where she was headed on Saturday.
By virtue of a 6-5 victory over Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., Tippin had booked a spot in Saturday’s playoff round as her Woodstock, Ont., rink finished atop the women’s Pool A with a 4-2 record.
Five teams behind Tippin were all tied at 3-3 (Kelsey Rocque, Theresa Breen, Calgary’s Nadine Scotland, Shannon Birchard and Shannon Kleibrink) and were waiting for the different tiebreaking permutations to see who would advance to the next round.
In the end, it was Edmonton’s Rocque finishing second because her record against the other five was clear at 3-1.
As well, there were four rinks leading Pool B at 4-2 (Kerri Einarson, Sherry Middaugh, Briane Meilleur and Krista McCarville) and they too were waiting to see who would move on.
McCarville, out of Thunder Bay, was awarded top spot, so she’ll play Rocque, while Tippin will meet Winnipeg’s Meilleur, who took second spot in Pool B.
Three teams make it out of each pool. In Pool A, Scotland played Breen late on Friday night and Birchard took on Kleibrink, with the winners playing for the third and final championship round spot early Saturday.
Einarson and Middaugh, meanwhile, play for the third pot in Pool B on Saturday morning.
Two teams from both the women’s and men’s sides will earn a trip to the 2017 Roar of the Rings Olympic Games qualifying tournament in Ottawa in December.
It isn’t over. In fact, the fun is just beginning, but Tippin can at least relax for one night after her big pressure-packed win on Friday.
“Over the years, we’ve played in provincial playoff games, but this one definitely a lot was on the line and a lot of pressure,” said Tippin, whose team includes vice-skip Chantal Duhaime, second Rachelle Vink and lead Tess Bobbie. “Both teams played incredible. It was just a really well-curled game.”
With the score tied a 5-5 and in possession of the hammer, the 34-year-old skip’s game plan was fairly straightforward.
“We were just trying to keep it as open as possible,” she said.
“Luckily everyone on the team made their shots and we were lucky to just have an open draw for the win. We couldn’t ask for more than that.”
Four wins over the round robin portion denotes a consistent play, Tippin agreed, though the week didn’t start strongly.
“We had our toughest game in the first game. We struggled with our draw weight and just tried to learn from that,” Tippin said.
“After that, we were able to get a hold of draw weight, and the ice has been incredible since then, really consistent. We’ve just been getting better and better every game.
“We were really happy with how we were playing, but at the same time, there were tons of other teams playing great. Last night (Thursday), we played Shannon Kleibrink and she played incredible, basically unbeatable. So no matter if you’re playing well, it’s always going to be a roller-coaster because there are so many good teams. We just knew we had to keep playing well until the end, and we’re lucky enough to pull out enough wins to be first.”
In their third season together, Team Tippin is now enjoying the fruits of their labour.
“We’ve been building for three years,” Tippin said.
“We played only a moderate amount of tournaments in the first year and then kept adding more and more every year and a lot of travel across Canada and internationally, as well. We’ve played in provincial playdowns and a lot of high-pressure tournaments, so we’re feeling like we’ve played a lot to prepare for this. This is a big sigh of relief for us. We’ll take the night off and then start preparing for the games on the weekend.”
Meanwhile in men’s play, Glenn Howard of Etobicoke was the only one guaranteed a spot in the playoffs after he won a 7-6 decision over Regina’s Adam Casey in the early draw on Friday.
That gave Howard a perfect 5-0 record in Pool A as he headed into his final round robin match against Vernon’s John Morris.
Charley Thomas finished atop Pool B with a 5-1 record as a result of his 8-3 triumph over fellow Edmontonian Brendan Bottcher.
Bottcher, Dayna Deruelle and William Lyburn all finished with 3-3 records and await the tiebreaker.
In Pool A, Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson and Jamie Murphy of Halifax also finished up at 3-3.