Staff
Lisa Penner of Fort Frances and her Northern Ontario rinkmates saw their dreams of a national championship fall short.
Mary Mattatall and her Nova Scotia rink from Halifax downed Kenora-based skip Peggy Taylor, with Penner at third, second Arleen Wilcox, and lead Tracy Stasiuk, 11-3 in six ends in the final game of the championship pool at the 2017 senior women’s national championship in Fredericton, N.B.
That left Northern Ontario with a 3-4 record in the pool and tied for fifth with Nova Scotia–one spot short of the fourth and final playoff berth.
That ended up going to Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson, who beat Alberta’s Cathy King 8-4 in the semi-finals and then Ontario’s Jo-Ann Rizzo 7-3 in the final to claim the crown.
Taylor’s team opened play with three-straight wins, but only was able to take two of their last seven games during the week.
Northern Ontario put itself in hot water with back-to-back losses to B.C.’s Lynne Noble 6-3 and Rizzo 6-5 to fall to 2-3 in the championship pool after going 4-2 to finish tied for second in Pool ‘B.’
Taylor returned to form with an 8-5 triumph over Kathy Hicks to put herself in position to at least create a tie for fourth with a win against Nova Scotia.
But Mattatall’s rink had other ideas–grabbing the game by the throat from the get-go.
She stole three in the first, then pulled off thefts of one in the second and two more in the third to lead 6-0.
Northern Ontario got on the board with a single in the fourth.
Nova Scotia then turned out the lights with a five-ender in the fifth to make it 11-1.
Taylor scored a deuce in the sixth but decided to shake hands after that.
