Skylar Ackerman is one win away from representing Saskatchewan at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Ackerman and her Saskatoon Nutana foursome of third Ashley Thevenot, second Taylor Stremick and lead Kaylin Skinner battled to a 7-6 win over Nancy Martin in the Page Playoff 1-2 game on Saturday night, booking their spot in the championship final at 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Asked on the CurlSask YouTube broadcast how the game played out, Ackerman acknowledged how close things were from start to finish.
“I feel like it was back and forth every end and whoever had hammer had control of the end,” she said. “We knew it was going to be a close one coming into today and was, that’s for sure.”
Ackerman trailed 4-3 through six ends against Martin but picked up a deuce in the seventh to take the lead. Martin put her veteran acumen to good use the next two ends, though, scoring one in the eighth to tie the game and stealing in the ninth for a 6-5 lead coming home.
Everything went Ackerman’s way in the final end, and when Martin’s final shot slid a bit too far to the back of the four foot, the Moose Jaw skip would make a perfect double to score two and take the win.
The Ackerman foursome are the youngest rink in the field and will be making their first Viterra Scotties final appearance.
“First we’re going to calm down a bit and take a breath,” Ackerman said with a laugh when asked what’s next. “I think we’ll take our momentum into tomorrow, as the game went on we kind of peaked and if we can keep that momentum moving forward we’ll have success.”
The news wasn’t as good for two-time champion Penny Barker, as her Moose Jaw Curling Centre rink of third Christie Gamble, second Jenna Enge and lead Danielle Sicinski surrendered five points over the final three ends to drop a 9-6 decision to Michelle Englot in the Page Playoff 3-4 game.
A deuce in the sixth end had given Barker a 5-4 lead, but Englot scored three in the seventh, held Barker to one in the eighth and then added two in the ninth before running Barker out of rocks in the final end.
Martin and Englot will now play in the semifinal at 10 a.m. on Sunday, with the winner advancing to face Ackerman for the title at 3 p.m.
All the scores from the weekend can be found at CurlSask.ca and the championship final will be live streamed on the CurlSask Youtube site.
