ESTEVAN - The teams that will compete at the upcoming Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts provincial women’s curling championship and the SaskTel Tankard men’s provincial tournament, which will be held in Estevan this winter, have been decided.
Last chance qualifiers were held for the women in North Battleford and Tisdale for the men from Jan. 5-8, with four teams advancing from each event.
Former Estevan resident Cindy Ricci, competing out of the Power Dodge Curling Centre in Estevan, was one of four teams to advance. Also on the Ricci rink were Kristy Johnson, Natalie Bloomfield and Tamara Kapell.
The Ricci rink opened the tournament with a 10-0 victory over Team Barber, thanks to steals of two in the fourth end, five in the fifth and three in the sixth. Then she lost 8-4 to Team Tisdale, and 7-6 to Team Silvernagle.
Knowing they would be eliminated with one more loss, Ricci responded with four straight wins, defeating Team Miskiman 10-3, Team Podedli 7-0, Team Orsted 8-4 and Team Tidslae 9-4. The win over Tisdale, which occurred in nine ends, punched Ricci’s ticket for provincials.
Ricci scored three in each of the third and ninth ends.
Team Orsted was skipped by former Estevan resident Sherrilee Orsted. They opened with back-to-back losses, dropping a 7-2 decision to Team Kleiter and a 12-4 game to Pomedli.
Orsted responded with two straight victories, defeating Team Blais 9-7 and Barber 9-3, but then lost to Ricci 8-4 in the C event semifinal.
Another former Estevan resident, Chelsey Emberley, went 0-3 at the competition. She lost 9-5 to Team Ellingson, 11-7 to Silvernagle nd (and) 6-2 to Team Kessel.
In addition to the Ricci rink, teams that advanced to provincials were Ashley Howard through the A event, Robyn Silvernagle through the B event and Madison Kleiter in the C division.
The Viterra Scotties provincial tournament will be held from Jan. 25-29 at Affinity Place.
As for the last-chance event, the Brent Gedak rink posted a 3-3 record. They opened with a 5-2 loss to the J. Heidt rink, but then rattled off three straight wins in the B event: 7-1 over Team Joyce, 7-6 over Team Drewitz and 9-2 over Team Miller.
The Gedak rink lost 13-5 to Team Muyres and 7-6 to Team Kalthoff, ending their hope for qualifying for provincials.
Qualifying for provincials were the Logan Ede rink in the A event, Josh Heidt in the B event, and Dallan Muyres and Dustin Kalthoff in the C event.
The Tankard will run from Feb. 1-5, also at Affinity Place.
The list of curlers for each team at the last-chance events was not available on the CurlSask website.
The other eight teams for each of the men’s and women’s events were announced prior to Christmas.
