Two Vernon rinks made the playoffs at the Driving Force Decks International Abbotsford Cashspiel.
Morgayne Eby won only once in five games but it was enough to reach the semifinals of the eight-team women’s draw.
Eby, backed by third Randi Ludwar, second Kristina Little and lead Melissa Webster, went 0-3 in the preliminary round. They fell 8-7 to eventual champion Corryn Brown of Kamloops 8-7 in their opening contest, dropped a 6-5 decision to Sara Daniels of Delta and fell 8-6 to Brette Richards of Kelowna.
That put the Eby rink into a quarterfinal match against the winner of the other preliminary pool, Kayte Gyles of New Westminster, who went 3-0. Eby scored an 8-7 victory and advanced to the final four, where the Vernon skip fell 7-4 to Richards.
Brown beat Richards 7-5 in the championship game.
Jim Cotter reached the quarters in the 10-team men’s field.
Backed by third Steve Laycock, second Andrew Nerpin and lead Rick Sawatsky, Cotter went 2-2 to finish in third place in his round-robin pool. The Vernon quartet opened with a 6-4 loss to Sean Geall of New Westminster, and followed that with a 7-5 setback against Jason Montgomery of Victoria.
Cotter, who turned 45 Tuesday, rebounded to dump Rob Dennis of Delta 7-2 and Roger Chan of Vancouver 5-2 to get into a tiebreaker against Dennis, which the Vernon rink won 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
They lost 7-4 to eventual champion Yuta Matsumara of Kitami, Japan, who defeated Montgomery 8-1 in just four ends in the championship game.
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