Staff
They made it to the big dance—now it’s time to break out their fancy footwork.
The Fort Frances-based rink of skip Kathie Jackson, third Teresa McFayden, second Leanne Eluik, and lead Jackie McCormick won both their games yesterday to qualify for the quarter-finals in the women’s division at the 2015 Travelers Curling Club Championships in Ottawa.
Northern Ontario opened with a 6-5 win over Manitoba, then downed New Brunswick by an 8-5 count last night to secure second place in Pool ‘B’ with a 5-1 record and avoid a raft of tie-breakers.
Alberta also finished at 5-1 but was awarded top spot in Pool ‘B’ because it had beaten Northern Ontario in their head-to-head match-up on Tuesday.
That put Jackson’s crew into a first-round cross-over playoff match-up this afternoon against Saskatchewan (4-2), which had finished in third place in Pool ‘A.’
The outcome was unavailable as of press time.
A victory would see Jackson advance to a semi-final showdown today at 5:30 p.m. (CST) against Pool ‘A’ champion P.E.I. (5-1).
The other first-round playoff match-up pitted B.C. (4-2) against Ontario (5-1), which
finished second in Pool ‘A.’
That winner advances to face Alberta in the other semi-final tonight.
The gold- and bronze-medal finals then will go tomorrow morning.
Jackson’s success during the round-robin partially stemmed on their ability to avoid getting burned by a big end.
The rink played 45 ends in its six games, but was one of just four not give up three points or more in an end.
The other three (Ontario, B.C., and P.E.I.) also qualified for the playoffs.
