Nedohin victory offers hope
Edmonton team uses last rock to edge Sweeting’s squad
Val Sweeting didn’t do much wrong Tuesday, but she wasn’t playing a game she absolutely, positively had to win.
Heather Nedohin was, and the 2012 Canadian champion from Edmonton did the rest of the women’s field a large favour, and kept quite a few rinks alive, by making her lastrock draw for a 6-5 victory over the previously unbeaten upstarts from the same club, Saville Sports Centre, that Nedohin’s team calls home.
By knocking Sweeting down a peg, Nedohin not only saved her own bacon (she’s now 2-2), she brought even the teams at the bottom of the eight-team standings — Sherry Middaugh’s Coldwater, Ont., team and Renee Sonnenberg’s squad from Grande Prairie, Alta., both 1-3 — back from oblivion.
Sweeting and Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, who cruised 7-2 over Sonnenberg, sit atop the board with matching 3-1 records, but four others are at 2-2 and with three games remaining before the three playoff spots are decided, the next couple of days shapes up as a serious bunfight.
“You see this all the time at the Scotties. Wednesday and Thursday will be turning points, so am I surprised? No. The women’s field is that strong, and that close,” said Nedohin, who was left an opening for her draw in the 10th when Sweeting’s centre-line guard overcurled.
“All of our games have been kneeknockers, this the field that it is, and this is exactly what I expect all games to be, coming down to last rock. Yesterday I had an opportunity to win. Today, yay, I made it.”
“I don’t think anyone at the trials has ever gone undefeated,” said Sweeting, who meets Middaugh next. “We just got outplayed. But we hung in there, and she had to make her last, and that’s all we could ask for.”
Scotties champion Rachel Homan of Ottawa rebounded from a poor performance Monday night — in which she left two rocks woefully short, and blamed ice conditions — to slip past Middaugh in 11 ends, 6-5, and even her record at 2-2. She plays Nedohin Wednesday morning.
Saskatoon’s Stefanie Lawton beat Winnipeg’s Chelsea Carey 7-5, leaving both teams with 2-2 records, as well.