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Nova Scotia junior women outlast the turbulence, win national curling championship
Stratford, Ontario - In the end, Nova Scotia's victory at the Canadian Women's Junior Curling Championship was like a crappy flight to The Bahamas. The mid-flight turbulence you endure is god awful. But in the end, you're, you know, in The Bahamas.
With a good start, and a better finish, the Nova Scotia junior women, skipped by 17-year-old Mary Fay, came away with a decisive, 9-5 win over British Columbia, and their skip, Sarah Daniels, in a meandering game that certainly entertained the gathering at the Stratford Rotary Complex.
“We knew they were going to fight back," said Fay, of a mid-game swoon that saw B.C. rally from three down to tie things up at 5 in the seventh end. "We just tried to stay confident and know that we were gonna get a break soon.”
Still, things might have completely unravelled had B.C. scored a big steal in the eighth end, lying four with a couple of their stones in hard to reach places. It was then that Nova Scotia third Kristin Clarke made a turnaround shot that left Nova Scotia lying with a shot rock that could not be gotten to easily.
“She (Clarke) made a great shot and she really freed up those red ones for us so that we could have a shot to make sure we scored that end," said Fay of that key moment. "We had the draw for two and I was completely confident that Karlee (Burgess) and Janique (LeBlanc) were gonna sweep it and judge it properly."
"Throwing it’s the easy part," said Fay of her bang-on draw. "It’s doing the sweeping and judging that is so hard. They are the ones that make the shots good.”
Nova Scotia stole two more in the ninth and ran B.C. out of rocks in the tenth, to take Nova Scotia's first national junior championship since Jill Mouzar skipped the province to a title in 2004.
“I’m overwhelmed right now," said Burgess, the 17-year-old Nova Scotia second whose father, Craig, won a provincial junior championship with New Brunswick in 1987. Like Fay and LeBlanc, Karlee Burgess had won bronze in this event in 2014. "It’s amazing, she said. "It was our goal to get here. We’re where we want to be.”
“It doesn’t seem real right now," added Fay, with the blur of photographers, a medal presentation and interviewers dominating the moment. "It’s a dream come true.”
(READ THE YAHOO SPORTS PROFILE OF MARY FAY HERE)
Both skips were, perhaps, a little jittery in the early going as you might expect at the outset of a championship final.
Fay missed a blank attempt in the first, being forced to take a single, and then overcooked a double attempt in the second, giving Daniels a chance to draw anywhere in the house for three. However, the 16-year-old skip pushed that draw through the rings and Nova Scotia dodged the bullet.
It was in the third end that Fay shone brightly. With her first stone, she played a terrific tap freeze on a B.C. stone in the twelve-foot. "Nice shot, Maaaaaaary," rained down from the stands as the Nova Scotia supporters came alive. Daniels' takeout attempt sailed wide, and Fay drew the button to take two and get fully on the rails for the moment.
In the fourth, Fay showed she was firmly grounded, while Daniels came up light on two draws. The first - a freeze attempt on a stone in the back of the four foot - instead ground to a halt as a guard. Fay warped another one in behind, and Daniels crashed her last on the guard she'd created. Steal of two, Nova Scotia up, 5-2.
It wasn't going to be a runaway, however and Daniels rebounded nicely, even after being forced to a single in the fifth end. In the sixth, she negotiated a tremendously tricky come around tap, eventually forcing Fay to give up a steal and climbing back to within one.
But the Nova Scotia Junior Women's Curling Team white-knuckled it through all that mid-game turbulence and enjoyed the smoothest of landings at the end of a rocky flight.
Now, as national champs, they get to dip their toes in the sand.
