During a grueling grind of eight games over five days, the Christina Monk rink persevered to win a berth at the Dominion Curling Club provincial championships and defended their President’s Cup title in St. Albert.
Last weekend at the Dominion northern playdowns in Sherwood Park, Monk’s line-up of third Lauren Jenkyns, second Kathy Piper and lead Laurie Schreiner finished 4-1 as one of the two B-event winners.
Monday in the double-knockout playoffs at the St. Albert Curling Club, Monk eliminated Annette Mortensen in the B final and Tuesday knocked off Karen Stephen 8-5 in the A-B final and 8-1 in four ends in the tiebreaker.
The club championship is the seventh in a row for Piper and Schreiner, Monk’s sixth and Jenkyns’ third.
They will now represent St. Albert at the 50th annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions, April 8 to 17 at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
The Dominion provincials are October in Fort St. John, BC and nationals are in November in Thunder Bay, Ont.
“Cities and Dominions are both pretty sweet in their own way,” said Jenkyns, who will also curl at cities on Doug McLennan’s mixed President’s Cup team. “It’s great to represent our club and move on to cities but it’s also quite impressive to go on to provincials for the Dominions as well. We get to go play provincial teams instead of just always the Edmonton teams. We’ll get some exposure to some teams that we don’t normally see, which will be nice, and we get to go travel up north too.”
At northerns Monk polished off Tricia Sware-Bilawchuk of Leduc 12-3 in six ends, Patty Wierenga of Barrhead 5-4 in an extra end and Andrea McCutcheon of the Derrick 8-2 in seven ends before dropping a 7-6 decision in an extra end to Tiffany Steuber of Spruce Grove in the A final on Sunday morning.
The loss put Monk in the afternoon’s B final and a three-ender in three propelled the team to a 6-3 win over Adele Kezama of the Ottewell.
“We played pretty solid at the Dominions. We were reading the ice pretty steady and keeping ourselves together,” Jenkyns said. “The loss in the A final was a tough one. We gave up a steal of two at the beginning of the game (and trailed 3-1 after three ends). We were able to fight our way back but our last rock missed in that one (as Steuber stole the game-winning point).”
With time to kill between the A and B finals the Monk foursome regrouped to finish what they started.
“We took a break, got out of the club and went to the mall and got our heads back into it,” Jenkyns said. “We were all playing really sharp so we knew we could pull it together to win the B and we played like we could.”
Last year at northerns, with Alison Howes curling in place of Piper, Monk finished 2-2 as the B semifinalists.
The winners of the 2013 St. Albert Centre Ladies Bonspiel returned to their club playoffs and after defeating a tough foe in Mortensen they swept Tuesday’s doubleheader against the plucky Stephen rink of third Loralie Euverman, second Kristina Hadden and lead Janice Klatchuk. The Monday league reps edged Monk in an extra end in the A final March 18.
“We’re kind of a brand new team (Stephen, Hadden and Klatchuk curled together last season), so we came a long way. We’re really proud how far we got,” Stephen said.
In the A-B final on the tricky sheet three surface, Stephen scored a deuce with the hammer in the first end and Monk replied with three in two and stole a deuce in three. After a deuce by Stephen in four, Monk counted one in five and stole a point in six to lead 7-4. The game ended with the teams trading singles with last shot.
“We played well. We hadn’t played since the previous Monday so it took us a while to get going. When we got going I thought we had a chance, we just missed some key shots,” Stephen said.
Jenkyns described the team’s win as sloppy.
“We were all just a little bit off in the first game. I think we were just a little tired from the weekend,” she said. “We had a little chat and talked about what we could’ve done a little bit differently. We struggled a little bit with the ice, myself included. We just weren’t that sharp but we definitely played a lot sharper in the second game.”
The Wednesday night quartet scored three-enders in three and four after Stephen picked up a point in two to trail by one.
“Our team got tied. It’s hard curling back to back if you’re not used to it. The other team played all weekend in the Dominions and then played last night and we hadn’t. You build up stamina when you curl a lot,” Stephen said. “We still had fun though.”
Up next for Monk is cities. Last year her team lost two straight after starting off with two wins in the double knockout competition and failed to make the B semifinals.
In 2010, when Monk was pregnant, Piper skipped the lineup of Jackie Rae Greening, Nicole Bellamy and Schreiner to the second Tournament of Champions title by a St. Albert rink since Cathy King won the inaugural women’s event in 1993
“We’ll go out there and hope for the best,” Jenkyns said. “Right now we’re pretty consistent. Christina tries to keep minimal rocks in front usually, but she knows when to mix it up at the same time. It just depends on who we play and how we’re all throwing.”
HOG LINES: Tuesday in the Manager’s Cup playoffs Maureen Forbes defeated Pam Albert in the final.
