The Yorkton-based curling team of skip Cathy Inglis, third Pat Kuspira, second Donna Liebrecht and lead Bev Fuches recently spent an entire week 鈥� from Saturday, March 21 to Saturday, March 28 鈥� competing at the 2015 Everest Canadian Seniors curling tournament in Edmonton, Alberta.
While there the team compiled a record of 9-3 and finished just off of the podium in fourth place overall in their second appearance at the Senior National tournament, having previously competed back in 2013 in Summerside, P.E.I. where they finished eighth overall with a record of 5-6. 鈥淚t was wonderful to be able to go back (to the Canadian Seniors) knowing what was in store due to playing in 2013 in P.E.I.,鈥� Inglis said. 鈥淭hat experience helped us a great deal. We started off really strong because we were a little bit more prepared this time than we were in 2013.鈥�
Starting strong might be a little bit of an understatement as Team Inglis flew out of the starting blocks quickly, pummelling Team Quebec (Elaine Roy) 12-2 in their first game on Saturday the 21st before dropping Team Northwest Territories (Debbie Moss) 7-1 in their second Saturday game.
Sunday saw the ladies from the prairies defeat Northern Ontario (Peggy Taylor) 7-1 and New Brunswick (Shelly Graham) 8-3 to move to 4-0 in the 鈥楢鈥� Pool before wins on Monday (12-4 over Nunavut鈥檚 Beverly Ford) and Tuesday (5-4 over Nova Scotia鈥檚 Colleen Jones) saw them go to 6-0 to wrap up the 鈥楢鈥� Pool competition in first place in the first-ever 鈥楢鈥� Pool competition. 鈥淭hey were trying a new format and they used our senior Canadians to use it where they let all of the teams in and they put the teams in two pools of seven,鈥� offered Inglis via phone interview. 鈥淪o you play your six games for round-robin, so for us that was two on Saturday, two on Sunday, one on Monday and one on Tuesday.
鈥淎fter that the top four teams from each pool went into what was called the Championship Pool and through that each team there had a chance to get to the finals.鈥�
The perfect record thru the first six games meant that Team Inglis carried three wins over to the Championship Pool where Saskatchewan was joined by fellow 鈥楢鈥� Pool members Quebec (Roy), Nova Scotia (Jones) and Northern Ontario (Taylor) and four 鈥楤鈥� Pool teams in B.C. (Sandra Jenkins), Alberta (Terri Loblaw), Manitoba (Kim Link) and Newfoundland and Labrador (Laura Phillips).
Inglis and company opened up Championship Pool play with their first loss of the tournament, conceding defeat to Team B.C. (Jenkins) 7-2 before rallying back with three straight wins 8-7, 5-4 and 6-5 respectively over Newfoundland and Labrador (Phillips), Manitoba (Link) and Alberta (Loblaw).
The three straight victories lifted Team Inglis to 6-1 and first overall in Championship Pool play and a spot in Saturday鈥檚 semi-finals against fourth ranked Alberta (Loblaw) in a sudden death playoff.
Things didn鈥檛 go the Yorkton ladies鈥� way Saturday morning as Team Alberta, spurred on by the boisterous home province support, sent Team Saskatchewan to the bronze medal game with a 9-3 Alberta victory.
Normally Team Saskatchewan 鈥� thanks to their first place finish thru round-robin 鈥� would have still had another shot at the gold medal game due to the page playoff format. However, as Inglis had previously stated, this year the Canadian Seniors were testing out a new format meaning no second opportunity. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 use the page system which they used to use where we would have had two tries to get to the final,鈥� Inglis told Yorkton This Week. 鈥淯nfortunately they used the system of two semifinals with one playing four and two playing three so we didn鈥檛 get that second chance but that鈥檚 okay.鈥�
Team Saskatchewan/Team Inglis couldn鈥檛 recover from their semi-final defeat as well as their bronze medal game opponents did, falling to Team Alberta (Jenkins) 7-6 to finish fourth overall.
But not everything was doom and gloom for Team Inglis in their final days at the Canadian Seniors. On top of finishing with an impressive 9-3 record overall two members of the team were also recognized for their outstanding tournaments. 鈥淲e definitely thought we played as good as we could and actually we were rewarded, too,鈥� boasted Inglis, continuing, 鈥淒onna Liebrecht, second on our team, she got all-star second and I got all-star skip, so that says a lot too about how we as a team played.鈥�
Overall though, Inglis feels herself as well as her team enjoyed their time representing the province of Saskatchewan; even if the name 鈥楾eam Saskatchewan鈥� comes with some pressure. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good to represent Saskatchewan but there is a lot of pressure in some ways playing for Saskatchewan because you鈥檙e expected to do well,鈥� said Inglis. 鈥淪askatchewan is still pretty strong in the curling world and so you want to do well because you鈥檙e representing the ones that you had eliminated to get there and wearing that green and white, you want to do well for all the curlers that would love to take your place.
鈥淚 think we did that. We played better than they ever have. We were ready for the tournament and really showed up to play all week and put a great week together and it鈥檚 something that I think we鈥檒l remember for our whole lives.鈥�
