Jamie Mountain
It was a tough day Saturday for a pair of Fort Frances rinks at the U21 provincial playdowns held at the Fort Frances Curling Club.
Tory Beaudry’s rink, consisting of Katrina Slomke (third), Ashley Payne (second), and Andrea Schram (lead), finished double round-robin play with a 3-3 record and then had to face her older sister, Hailey Beaudry, in a tie-breaker that morning.
Representing the Fort William C.C. (Thunder Bay), the former Muskie took the match by a convincing 10-2 margin, which ended an otherwise solid showing by Beaudry’s younger sibling.
Hailey’s rink, which also included former Muskie Erin Tomalty at lead, then took down Kira Brunton of Sudbury (4-2) by a 9-5 score in the women’s final that afternoon.
Tory Beaudry felt it was an unusual experience having to face her older sister multiple times, after the two used to regularly play together, but treated the matches like any other regular ones.
“Yeah, it was really weird,” she admitted. “I used to play with her and now I’m competing against her.
“I tried to treat it like any other match even though it was [against] my sister,” she added.
“I knew we were going to have to face off against each other at some point, and it was what it was.”
Hailey Beaudry agreed just how bizarre it was to face off against her younger sister.
“That was definitely the weirdest part of the whole tournament because I’ve always played with her, and I’ve never actually had to play against her other than just for fun in a practice,” she explained.
“So, yeah, it was really weird playing against her but it was [also] fun.”
Tory Beaudry noted her rink came into the tournament with the mindset that they would try to play their best but wouldn’t be upset if they didn’t have success.
“We’re really happy with how we did,” she enthused after Saturday’s tie-breaker loss.
“We came into this and were like, ‘You know, it’s okay if we don’t win any games.'” Tory added. “We’re just here to get some experience and we ended up having the chance last night [Friday] if we won to go straight to the final.
“We didn’t win that game,” she noted. “And even though we lost the tie-breaker, too, we’re still happy that we did pretty good.”
On the men’s side, meanwhile, Chris Silver of Fort Frances rink went 3-1 in round-robin play in the five-team division before losing a tough 7-4 decision Saturday afternoon to defending U21 champ Tanner Horgan of Sudbury, who topped the field at 4-0.
Despite the match being much closer than Thursday morning’s 11-3 thrashing at the hands of Horgan, Silver admitted the outcome still was hard to take.
“I was glad with the way our guys played,” he said. “We missed a few shots out there that we could have made but they [Horgan’s rink] were on fire, too, and they were making some pretty good shots.
“I’m a little disappointed about the result, but we played pretty good and we know there’s a lot of room for us to improve,” Silver added.
“And for us to see that we can play with them, when they were in China last week, was really reassuring and good to see moving forward.”
For Horgan, it was his fifth-straight U21 provincial title. He now gets to represent Northern Ontario at the national playdowns in mid-January in Shawinigan, Que., as will Hailey Beaudry’s rink.
The worlds will be held in Aberdeen, Scotland this spring.
After having a mostly easier week in terms of competition, Horgan felt as though Silver’s rink really pushed them to play at their best in the final and was complimentary of their strategy.
“They came up big, to be honest,” Horgan said about the final.
“They had a little more of an unconventional strategy in the first half of the game, so it kept them in it for a while.
“We got somewhat of a lead early but they decided to keep it a little close,” he added.
“Other teams [in the tournament] would go hard out of the gate and it would be over quick because there would be a miss here or there,” Horgan explained.
“But these guys kept it real close for a while so that’s good on them,” he lauded.
“They were definitely the second-best team all week, though, and they proved it here today, as well.”
Coach Ron Silver believes Horgan’s rink deserves full credit for how it played this past week, but feels his son’s rink can build off the lessons they learned from their losses.
“I mean, that’s one of the top teams in Canada, if not the top team,” he remarked.
“To be with them and be that close to beat them, they [Chris’ rink] did very well.
“Every tournament you go into is a learning experience, win or lose,” Ron Silver added.
“Any positive result that you can turn around and build off of is fantastic, and I think they will,” he enthused.
Both Silver and Tory Beaudry now are looking ahead to the 2018 OFSAA boys’ and girls’ curling playdowns, which the Fort Frances Curling Club is hosting in March.
Both rinks have a berth into the tournament as the hosts.
