For Kelly Scott, ambitions of a ninth trip to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national women’s curling championship will have to wait at least another year.
The Kelowna rink was eliminated from the 2015 B.C. women’s curling championship in Maple Ridge, falling 7-6 to Sarah Wark of Victoria/Juan de Fuca in Sunday morning’s semifinal.
Scott, Shannon Aleksic, Karla Thompson and Sarah Pyke, were in control of the game much of the way, leading 4-0 after three ends and 6-3 after six.
But Wark chipped away at the deficit, scoring a deuce in the seventh, then stealing singles in each of the eighth and 10th ends to secure the win.
In the 10th, Scott needed a draw to the four-foot for the victory with her final stone, but was wide and slid too far to give up the steal of one.
It was a challenging week for the newly-formed Scott team who was forced to win back-to-back games to come through the C event, including the first game of the Page playoff over Kristy Lewis on Saturday night.
Scott, a six-time B.C. and two-time Canadian champ, added two newcomers to her rink this season in Aleksic and Thompson. The two replaced Jeanna Schraeder and Sasha Carter who chose to take the season off to spend more time with their families.
Scott and her rink played in just four events prior to provincials this season, but earned enough points on the World Curling Tour circuit to lock up a berth at the B.C. Scotties.
In Sunday’s final, Prince George’s Patti Knezevic defeated Wark 5-3 in an extra end.
The Knezevic rink will represent B.C. at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts next month in Moose Jaw.
