Lucas Punkari
Even though her rink fell short in their quest to win the Northern Ontario junior women’s provincial championship in Sioux Lookout over the weekend, Tirzah Keffer still was very happy with how her crew performed.
Keffer, who hails from Fort Frances but currently lives in Thunder Bay to attend Lakehead University, skipped third Sheree Hinz, second Paige Rubenick, and lead Rachel Camlin to a third-place finish in the eight-team field with a 5-2 record, which left her just outside of a spot in Sunday’s final.
“I didn’t expect us to get as far or to play as well as we did, so I was very happy with our play, and the rest of the girls were, as well,” said Keffer, who currently curls out of the Port Arthur Curling Club.
“We took advantage of our opportunities and believed in ourselves, and we were able to play our very best.
“Also, I was very happy with how the girls stayed positive throughout the entire weekend,” added Keffer.
“They kept their heads up high and didn’t make any negative comments when things didn’t go right.”
Keffer jumped out to a 4-0 start, defeating Danielle Ouellet (Longlac) and Chloe Gordon (Copper Cliff) on Thursday before upending Megan Szajewski (Keewatin) and Robin Beaudry (Sudbury) on Friday.
They dropped from the unbeaten ranks Friday night, however, with a 12-5 loss in eight ends to fellow Port Arthur curler Karlee Jones.
Keffer promptly bounced back with a 7-3 triumph over Kaitlyn Poirier (Sioux Lookout) on Saturday morning.
She then had a chance to force a tie-breaker if she could beat Kendra Lilly (Sudbury) in her final round-robin game Saturday afternoon, but she ended up falling 8-3 in nine ends to drop to 5-2 and out of the running.
Lilly went on to beat Jones 7-1 in the final Sunday morning to earn her third-straight provincial championship, as well as the right to represent Northern Ontario at the M&M Meat Shops Canadians Juniors in Napanee, Ont. next month.
“I thought in our first couple of games we were kind of weak, to be honest,” Keffer admitted. “But I felt that we had better games as we went along, with our best game being against Poirier.
“We had a chance to get into the playoffs against Lilly, but they are a very strong team who have been together for a very long time and they just outshot us in the end,” she noted.
Although their junior season has come to an end, the Keffer rink will continue to play in the Thunder Bay league for the rest of the season.
They also may participate in a couple of bonspiels before the ice is taken out for another winter.
Meanwhile, with Keffer having one more year of junior eligibility next season, the foursome will remain intact to make another run at provincial glory, with an increased emphasis on off-ice training.
“I think the biggest lesson that we learned during the course of the weekend was in regards to our fitness,” Keffer remarked.
“During the summer, my third [Hinz] and I had a training program that we worked on, but our other two players [Rubenick and Camlin] didn’t and at the end of the weekend they were quite sore after playing seven games.
“They’ll be taking part in the summer program with us this year, and I think we should definitely see some improvement there as we will be in shape for when we go back on the ice,” Keffer said.
