Val Sweeting has successfully defended the Alberta Scotties championship with a 9-7 win over Chelsea Carey in the provincial final Sunday in Lacombe, Alta.
Sweeting held the hammer coming home and made no mistake sending her final stone into the four-foot circle to get shot rock and clinch the title.
Sweeting opened with the hammer, sat two with one shot remaining but Carey’s frozen rock on top of the pair made it impossible to score more without wrecking and Sweeting opted to throw through and take the deuce. Sweeting lied three stones to force Carey to take one in the second.
Carey’s shot stone in three was partially buried and Sweeting had a chance to tap it out for two but her shooter missed the mark and glanced off of it to give up the steal. The two teams swapped singles through the fourth and fifth ends.
Sweeting made a nose hit in the sixth to bop out both of Carey’s stone and scored three and pull ahead 6-3. Carey recovered in seven with an open draw for shot rock and added a second point after a close measurement. Sweeting countered with a deuce in eight to regain the three-point advantage.
Carey added another two in the ninth end to narrow the gap to one but gave up the hammer for the final end.
MANITOBA
Reigning Olympic champion Jennifer Jones ran Kerri Einarson out of rocks in the 10th end and captured her seventh career Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts title with a 5-2 win Sunday in Winkler, Man.
The Winnipeg team of Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen stayed golden throughout the tournament finishing on top of the Asham Group in the round-robin stage with an undefeated 7-0 record and beating Einarson 9-6 Saturday night in the page playoff 1-vs-1 game.
Einarson, who went 7-0 in the Extreme Force Group, held off Barb Spencer 5-3 in the semifinal earlier in the day to set up the rematch.
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ONTARIO
Julie Hastings defeated Sherry Middaugh 9-5 to capture the Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship Sunday in Penetanguishene, Ont.
It’s the first provincial championship for the Thornhill-based team of Hastings, her twin sister Christy Trombley, Stacey Smith and Katrina Collins, who have played together since 1994.
Team Hastings qualified for the Ontario Scotties out of the last-chance Challenge Round but went on a roll and topped the round robin with an 8-1 record, sustaining their lone loss to Team Middaugh before getting revenge in the page playoff 1-vs-2 game.
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B.C.
Patti Knezevic of Prince George capped an undefeated run at the B.C. Scotties with a 4-3 win in the extra end against Sarah Wark to capture the provincial championship in Maple Ridge, B.C.
Wark, from Victoria, trailed by one in the ninth and blanked the end to hold the hammer in the 10th. Knezevic made a mistake with her final shot and gave Wark an open draw to score two and win the championship but her shooter rolled heavy and she only got the tying point.
Wark’s final shot in the extra end wrecked on a guard and the teams shook hands.
Wark stole points in the eighth and 10th ends to upset six-time provincial champion Kelly Scott 7-6 in the semifinal.
Scott grabbed back-to-back single steals in two and three and Wark’s runback in four hit and rolled removing both of her stones and gave up a steal of two. Wark bounced back scoring three in the fifth. The rinks traded pairs of points through six and seven and Wark stole one in the eighth to tie it.
Scott fell to the C-side of the triple knockout tournament but beat defending champion Kesa Van Osch to qualify. The Kelowna native earned a 9-1 rout over Kristy Lewis in the C-vs-C page playoff game.
NOVA SCOTIA
In Dartmouth, N.S., two-time world champion Mary-Anne Arsenault scored three in the final end to lift her team to a 7-5 victory over Theresa Breen and win the Nova Scotia Scotties title.
Breen blanked the first two ends earned a deuce in three to open the scoring. Arsenault countered with a pair in five and Breen replied scoring another two in six to go up 4-2.
Arsenault settled for one in the seventh and stole a point in the eighth to tie it and Breen got a single in the ninth to pull back into the lead 4-3 but gave up the hammer coming home.
SASKATCHEWAN
Defending champ Stefanie Lawton scored three in the eighth to lift her Saskatoon team to an 8-6 win over Regina’s Lana Vey 8-6 in the semifinal of the Saskatchewan Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Assinoboia, Sask.
It was back-and-forth for a majority of the game as the two rinks have kept pace with each other trading pairs of points through the second and third ends, singles in four and five and deuces again in six and seven. Lawton jumped out with the three-ender in eight and Vey was held to one in the ninth.
Lawton faces Michelle Englot in the final at 5 p.m. CT.
