The Christina Monk rink was smooth as ice in the President’s Cup final Thursday at the St. Albert Curling Club.
Monk, third Lauren Jenkyns, second Kathy Piper and lead Laurie Schreiner played an almost flawless game to beat Susan Kwak 8-3 in seven ends in the A-B playoff for the women’s crown.
“All of us curled real consistent,” Monk said. “We were clicking.”
The perennial club champions scored deuces in the first and third ends and in five counted three for a commanding 7-2 lead.
“The other skip found it difficult to try and score two against me and yet I was able to always get multiples on her, which is never a good thing when you’re down like that,” Monk said.
Kwak, third Eileen Millar, second Sharon Monk and lead Lana Knoll were unable to make the clutch shots when it counted.
“They were on their game and we weren’t so obviously they deserved to win,” Kwak said. “I wasn’t making the takeouts when I needed to. I also missed a couple of draws when we had the hammer, which meant we would’ve taken two instead of the one and that would’ve kept us in the game a little better.”
Monk opened the scoring with a hit and stick for two. The next end Kwak settled for one after her draw with the hammer was heavy. In the third end her last shot rolled through the house and Monk was successful drawing for two.
Monk had a big end shaping up in four before Kwak slid her first delivery behind cover for shot rock. Kwak picked up one in the end to cut the deficit to two.
In five Monk was lying two when Kwak nicked a guard with her last attempt and Monk followed with an easy draw for three.
Kwak rebounded in six with a hit and stick for one. The next end she was poised to score a deuce with rocks behind the T line when Monk made her final stone count.
Down by five, Kwak decided to shake hands after her team’s second loss in the four-team double-knockout draw.
“It’s disappointing but we’re actually quite happy how far we got,” said the skip of the Tuesday night rink.
The President’s Cup was the sixth in row for Piper and Schreiner, Monk’s fifth and the second for Jenkyns. They lost only three games in the Wednesday night league before going 3-0 in the playoffs.
“When we lose we end up talking about it and the next game we come out guns firing,” Monk said.
This was the first full season Monk and Jenkyns curled together and were guided by the veteran front-end duo of Piper and Schreiner.
“It’s not that difficult to play with these girls,” Monk said. “Lauren did an awesome job. She struggled a little bit with line call at the beginning because it’s not something she is used to doing but she did really well for us. As for Laurie and Kathy, they are like rocks. I stand back and relax and they throw what you want.”
The Monk foursome will now represent St. Albert at the Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions, starting April 10 at the Jasper Place Curling Club.
Monk was on maternity leave when Piper called the shots in winning the 2010 Tournament of Champions, curling with Schreiner, Nicole Bellamy and Jackie-Rae Greening. It was only the second championship for a St. Albert women’s rink: Cathy King won the inaugural playoff in 1993.
In 2009 Monk’s crew of Piper, Schreiner and Bellamy reached the final after they made it as far as the semifinals the previous two years.
“We’re excited to go there again, but the big thing for us right now is Dominions. For us to try to get anywhere in the Dominions we have to win our club and that’s what we did [for a berth at the 2013 northerns]. We really want to see how far we can go in the Dominions,” Monk said. “We don’t want to be super competitive, we just want to excel at the level we’re at.”
Last weekend Monk’s rink, with Alison Howes curling in place of Piper, finished 2-2 as the B semifinalists in the Dominion northern playdowns in Sherwood Park. The A and B winners qualified for provincials in October.
“To know that we were close to getting that spot [at provincials] just makes next year that much more exciting, especially since I won’t be having a handicap,” said Monk, who is curling up a storm despite being six months pregnant.
“It is tough to a point. My sliding leg was suffering so I had to change my entire delivery. It was a struggle because I had to do that more than halfway into the year, but after I was able to accomplish that the rest of it was actually not that bad.”
