THE CANADIAN PRESS
RED DEER, Alta. — B.C.’s Kelly Scott and defending champion Amber Holland continued to lead the field at the Canadian women’s curling championships despite misfortune Monday.
Scott’s teammate Sasha Carter didn’t play in two games because of the flu. With alternate Sherry Fraser in the lineup, B.C. lost 8-7 to Nova Scotia after beating Holland 7-5 earlier in the day.
"The plan was really to rest her tonight and tomorrow and then we have four games in a row," Scott said. "She was not worried about throwing, but was worried about the sweeping, so just resting up for the home stretch."
Holland bounced back from her first loss in the tournament with a 7-3 win over Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones at night. Her second Tammy Schneider left the game with an apparent knee injury and was replaced by alternate Jolene Campbell.
B.C., Manitoba and Holland’s Team Canada were considered the pre-tournament favourites and all three split their games Monday.
Scott and Holland were 4-1 followed by Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick all at 3-2.
Ontario, the Territories, Alberta, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were in a pack at 2-3, with Newfoundland and Labrador at 1-4.
The top four teams advance at the conclusion of the preliminary round Thursday advance to playoffs. Ties for fourth will be solves by tiebreaker games.
Saskatchewan’s Michelle Englot downed Ontario’s Tracy Horgan 10-3 and New Brunswick’s Rebecca Atkinson defeated Alberta’s Heather Nedohin 8-5 in Monday evening’s other games.
Carter is four months pregnant, but Scott believes Carter has the flu because Scott’s husband Chad and young son Nash have the same symptoms.
Carter throws third rocks when healthy. Dailene Sivertson throw second stones, but serves as vice skip.
Scott herself said her stomach was upset to start the game against Nova Scotia, but she recovered. The skip and Carter were staying in the same room at their hotel, but Scott moved in with Fraser to limit potential spread.
"There’s something going around," Scott said. "Hopefully tomorrow we can be rested, healthy and the original foursome back out there."
Canada second Schneider’s left knee buckled when she slid out of the hack in the second end in the game versus Manitoba.
"Just went over top on my knee and twisted it and kind of aggravated it," Schneider said. "Just have to wait and see. Go home tonight and ice it and hopefully be back out there. I’ve never had any issues with that knee before."
The Manitobans weren’t spared a mishap. Second Jill Officer tripped on a guard in front of the house while sweeping the final stone thrown by Jones. It was supposed to be an open hit to score two, but Officer fell and burned the stone.
Officer stayed in the game, but that mistake gave a steal of two to Holland and the Jones team couldn’t recover. They gave up a single point in the next end and shook hands after Holland scored three in the ninth.
"I just misjudged the guard and went down without being able to have a chance to get anything out of the way," Officer said of her fall. "I don’t even know what hit the rock. I think it was my broom."
Incidents weren’t limited to that sheet of ice. New Brunswick second Jill Babin dropped to her knees while sweeping the final stone of the fifth end in a game against Alberta, but managed to avoid burning that stone.
"I was getting treatment and two other seconds went down," Schneider said. "I was like ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve started a trend.’ Not sure I want to keep that trend going."
B.C.’s loss to Heather Smith-Dacey’s team was the first time in the tournament that Scott didn’t pull a win out in the final end. Her last draw slid through the house, giving Smith-Dacey an easy hit for two and the win.
"A stinker," was Scott’s assessment of her last throw. "I’d like that one back.
"You hate losing for sure and had my last rock been better, we could have maybe snuck out a win. But to split a day like today given everything that was thrown at us, I think that’s great."