Bad Day For Jones
February 2, 2009
- Article by Brad Norman
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Defending Tournament of Hearts' champion Jennifer Jones was perfect heading into Monday's draws. But the Manitoba skip suffered big back-to-back upsets. Team Northwest Territories/Yukon and Team Newfoundland both knocked down the Jones squad. Meanwhile, Krista McCarville sits in a tie for first place.
For Jones, the day started with what they expected to be a relatively straight forward game. Team Canada was up against the Territories, a team with substantially less experience than the Jones' rink.
But it was the Territories who put the first big score on the board. Tied 1-1 after two, the Territories posted a four-point end.
Jones never recovered, continuing to struggle and suffering a 10-4 loss, her first loss of the 2010 Tournament of Hearts.
But the bleeding didn't stop there. Jones was up against Newfoundland's Shelley Nichols next. Heading into the fifth end, the game was tight, deadlocked at 3-3. Then Jones completely fell apart. The vetern skip was missing shots all over the place, giving up four consecutive stolen ends. This gave Newfoundland the 8-4 victory and hands Jones a second straight loss.
Ontario's newest curling star, Krista McCarville, continues to roll at the Tournament of Hearts. After falling behind early to rival Amber Holland, McCarville rallied late in the game. She engineered a beautiful three-point steal in the seventh end to tie the game up. In the end, however, Holland managed to edge out McCarville for the 7-6 win.
The was McCarville's first loss of the event, but regrouped for draw 8. They were up against former world champion Kelly Scott.
Though the Scott team was struggling to keep up with Mcarville's powerful offence, the game was close the entire way through. The game all came down to McCarville's final stone of the 10th end. She attempted a tricky hit and flop to grab a peice of the four-foot to score a deuce. She did exactly that, grabbing the two points to step ahead of Scott and earn the 7-6 victory.
McCarville is now in first place with a 4-1 record. They are tied with P.E.I., who also have a 4-1 record. The incredibly young P.E.I. squad is one of the biggest surprises at this year's event, with the third and fourth stones both being thrown by 21-year olds.
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