By Matthew Abrey
Special to the Western News
Kesa Van Osch and her Nanaimo-based rink dropped to a record of 1-2 at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Sunday after a loss to Team Prince Edward Island.
“It was tough,” said the Team B.C. skip Van Osch, after the 9-5 loss. “We never quite figured it out and we just didn’t feel like we were throwing well. Tomorrow’s another day.”
Robyn MacPhee and her PEI rink jumped to a 2-0 lead after the first end. However, Team B.C. managed to knock one of their own right to the button in the second, laying two and tying it up. PEI responded with another two of their own in the third. B.C. kept the pattern alive in the fourth, laying yet another two to tie it up at 4-4.
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The fifth was blanked and PEI took advantage of the hammer in the sixth, jumping them out to a 7-4 lead.
The two rinks would trade points in the next few ends, but Team B.C. just couldn’t quite orchestrate the comeback putting them on the losing side 9-5 after 10 ends.
Van Osch was already looking forward to Monday’s 2 p.m. matchup against a young Quebec rink. The team’s skip, Émilia Gagne, is 18 years old. Her second and third are both 17 and the lead is 19 years old. The only player out of her teens is alternate Isabelle Thiboutot, 21.
“Our strategy won’t change,” said Van Osch. “We’re going to treat them like any other team — and they’re just as dangerous — so we’ll have to be focused.”
On Sheet B, Casey Scheidegger and her Team Alberta rink took down Michelle Englot and Team Canada. That gives Team Alberta a spotless 3-0 record.
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After going down 2-0 in the first end, Englot evened things up by making a take-out shot and sticking the shooter to lay two. The third end was blanked then Alberta skip Scheidegger made a pick-and-roll with the last shot of the end to lay three, making it 5-2. Team Canada got one back in the fifth, but Scheidegger grabbed another two in the sixth to go ahead 7-3.
All was going well for Scheidegger until her second last shot of the seventh. The skip missed her takeout attempt resulting in not only losing the shooter, but also the other two rocks she had sitting in the house. Michelle Englot and her Team Canada rink took advantage of the error, laying three in the end to cut Alberta’s lead to 7-6.
However, the comeback stopped there. Englot and Team Canada ended up dropping the match 10-6.
On Sheet C, Nunavut sat a rock in the rings in the second end giving them their first lead in the tournament — 1-0 over Team Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland then went up 3-1 in the third end. That grew to 7-1 by the fourth. Nunavut grabbed one more in the fifth to make it 7-2, but it was 10-3 by end of seventh. The two teams shook hands on a 10-3 final score in the eighth end.
Team Ontario downed the young Quebec rink 7-5 on Sheet A, pushing both team’s records to 1-2 on the tournament.
