Skylar Ackerman and Penny Barker are into the playoff round at the Viterra Scotties women’s provincial curling championship.
For Ackerman and her Saskatoon Nutana foursome of third Ashley Thevenot, second Taylor Stremick and lead Kaylin Skinner, a playoff spot was all but academic heading into play Friday, and they’d close out their round robin in style with a 14-6 win over Saskatoon Nutana’s Jessica Mitchell.
That gave the Moose Jaw skip and her rink a 4-1 record, first place in Pool B and a spot in the Page Playoff 1-2 game against Martensville’s Nancy Martin, who topped Pool A with a 5-0 record.
Ackerman’s contest with Mitchell was a first-place showdown and saw her avoid a huge logjam for second place. After a great start that saw Ackerman up a pair of three-enders to lead 6-2 through four, the teams would exchange deuces over the next three ends to send Ackerman into the eighth leading 8-6. That end couldn’t have turned out better for the local skip, as she’d put up six and bring things to an early end.
Barker and her Moose Jaw Curling Centre rink of third Christie Gamble, second Jenna Enge and lead Danielle Sicinski found themselves needing a win on Friday afternoon against Regina Highland’s Brooklyn Stevenson, and they’d get the job done with a 7-5 victory.
That saw Barker finish with a 3-2 record and sole possession of second place in Pool A, earning a spot in the Page Playoff 3-4 game on Saturday night. There, she’ll face either Mitchell or Regina Highland’s Michelle Englot after they play a tiebreaker in the afternoon.
Barker’s contest against Stevenson was a little closer than she’d have liked, especially after their start: the Moose Jaw foursome stole two in the second, another in the third and three more in the fourth for a 6-0 lead.
Stevenson finally picked up points with the hammer in the fifth end and then went on a run of her own with steals the next three to trail 6-5 heading into the ninth. There, Barker would pick up one before running Stevenson out of rocks in the final end.
Sherilee Orsted and her Moose Jaw rink of third Candace Newkirk, second Shalon Fleming and lead Jasmine Kerr picked up a 6-4 victory over Stevenson in their final game to finish 2-3 and miss a tiebreaker by a single win.
Amber Holland and her Kronau foursome of third Kim Schneider, second Jill Springer and lead Deb Lozinski split their final two games, defeating Saskatoon Nutana’s Sherry Anderson 8-1 before falling 8-6 to Stevenson to also finish 2-3 in Pool A.
The first Page Playoff games are set for 7:30 Saturday, with the winner of Ackerman and Martin advancing directly to the final and the loser dropping down to face the winner of Barker and the tiebreaker victor at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
The Viterra Scotties championship final is set for 3 p.m. Sunday at the Tisdale Recplex.
You can follow along with all the results on www.curlsask.ca, with all the games being streamed on the CurlSask Youtube page.
