It might have taken them a bit longer than they’d have liked to get there, but Emily Haupstein and her Weyburn-based foursome are off to the Saskatchewan junior women’s curling provincial championships.
Haupstein -- who includes Moose Jaw’s Skylar Ackerman at third, along with lead Abby Johnson and second Taylor Stremick -- qualified through the ‘C’ side at the first Junior Women’s Q-Spiel this past weekend in Watrous.
As a result, they’ll have a shot at a Saskatchewan title when they take the ice at the Junior Women’s Provincial Championship running Feb. 24-28 in Martensville.
Things started out perfectly for Haupstein this past weekend, as they rolled to an 11-2 win over Regina’s Claudia Lacell before putting up a pair of four-enders in a 13-4 victory over Saskatoon’s Savanna Taylor to advance to the A-final.
There, Haupstein ran into a tough back-and-forth battle with Gravelbourg’s Chantel Hoag before falling 6-5 in an extra end. Hoag and Ackerman are former teammates, having won a silver medal together at the Canadian U-18 curling championships in 2018.
The loss dropped Haupstein to the B-final, where she once again faced Taylor and saw a much different result. The Saskatoon foursome scored three in the first end and the two rinks exchanged single points the rest of the way through until the ninth, where a Haupstein deuce got her within one heading home. Taylor would score the single point and take a 7-5 win.
There were no such dramatics in Haupstein’s appearance in the C-final with a provincial spot on the line.
Facing Balgonie’s Elizabeth Kessel, Haupstein scored four in the second and led 5-1 through three ends before going on to a 9-4 victory and clinching the provincial berth.
Teams will have another shot to earn one of the remaining provincial spots during the Jan. 28 weekend at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre, where both the Junior Women’s and Men’s second Q-spiels will take place. The top four teams from each triple-knockout tournament will land the final qualifying spots for their respective Saskatchewan championships.
