An extra-end steal brought a memorable Ladies Alberta Open to a close.
Team Skrlik earned a 6-5 win in nine ends over Team Scheidegger in a battle of top Alberta teams at the Okotoks Curling Club event on Nov. 13.
“We’re in a points race for a provincial qualifier spot so this was a huge win for us,” said skip Kayla Skrlik. “To try to and edge ahead of some our competitors like Selena (Sturmay), Casey (Scheidegger), Jessie Hunkin, all of those guys.”
In the final, Skrlik used hammer to draw around three yellow Scheidegger stones right to the button to force the extra-end.
“We could have played a really tough in off for two,” Skrlik said. “And normally when you don’t have the free tick zone, where you can tick rocks on the centre line, we probably go for a two instead of the one.
“But we thought our chances of stealing in the extra-end would be much greater than normal and decided to just take our one there.”
In the ninth, Skrlik earned shot stone with her first shot and had to hope her guards would hold up with Scheidegger owning last shot with the final stone just running out of steam leading to the steal and victory for the Calgary-based squad.
Fortunately for Skrlik, with third Geri-Lynn Ramsay, second Brittany Tran and lead Ashton Skrlik, high-pressure situations were very much the norm all weekend.
In the semifinal, Skrlik scored three in the eighth end to edge the previously undefeated Michelle Hartwell Rink out of Edmonton by a 7-5 score.
“We’ve been playing them pretty close and the semi was a really tight game,” Skrlik said. “Our qualifier game, we had to win to get in against Selena Sturmay and that was also an extra-end steal to win.
“It’s really nice to have some tight ends.”
Team Skrlik went 6-1 overall in the competition, with the skip attributing their success to its recent run of form and level of comfort in Okotoks and with the club’s general manager and icemaker extraordinaire Mike Libbus.
“This is basically a local club for us, we’re originally from Calgary and we know Mike really well so that was a benefit,” Skrlik said. “In addition, we had a really strong weekend at Autumn Gold two weeks ago and we’re really building off that.
“That led to our wins off the hop. We had a rough first game and really battled back after that.”
Okotoks’ Atina Ford-Johnston had a strong showing on home ice at the Open.
Ford-Johnston, skipping a team featuring Shannon Morris, Cori Morris and Sheri Pickering, advanced to the playoff round with a 4-3 record overall.
Ford-Johnston won the quarterfinal 6-5 over Edmonton’s Elysa Crough before being downed 5-4 in an extra-end by Scheidegger in a nailbiter semifinal.
Team Kristie Moore, which features Okotoks’ Valerie Ekelund at lead, posted an 0-4 record in the 15-team competition.
Scheidegger and Hartwell had the lone undefeated records in pool play.
The action continues at the Okotoks Curling Club later this month with the Okotoks U20 Men’s and Women’s Bonspiel, from Nov. 25-27.
For more information, visit okotokscurling.com.
