Round robin play wraps up at Manitoba Scotties

Round robin play at the Manitoba Scotties wrapped up Friday afternoon in East St. Paul with two teams, very familiar to one another, finishing undefeated.

In the morning draw, Kaitlyn Lawes led her Fort Rouge rink to a 9-4 win over East St. Paul’s Team Chelsea Carey. Team Lawes put up four points in the last three ends to finish first in the Asham Black group with a 5-0 record. Team Carey finished the week with a win and four losses.

In the final draw of the round robin, after falling behind 4-0 in the second end, Team Jennifer Jones stole five points in the 4th end to overcome the deficit en route to a 10-7 win over Abby Ackland’s rink from East St. Paul. The win kept the undefeated streak alive as they finished as the top team in the Asham Express Red Group heading into the playoffs.

Jones joined the defending Manitoba Scotties champion Team Zacharias, now competing as Team Jones, over the offseason after disbanding her team at the end of last season. Two of those teammates from last year, Katelyn Lawes and Jocelyn Peterman, are now competing as Team Lawes, the tournament’s other undefeated team, along with another long-time teammate of Jones, Jill Officer, who is the team’s fifth and filling in for Selena Njegovan this tournament.

With the groups now crossing over for the playoff round, many are looking forward to Saturday’s marquee matchup between the top two teams at 4 p.m., which very well could be a preview of the final.

Rounding out the playoff field from the Asham Black Group is Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club’s Team Beth Peterson who finished the round 4-1 after beating Granite Curling Club’s Team Katy Lukowich 7-6 in their final game. The win helped fellow Assiniboine Memorial rink, Team Darcy Robertson, who edged out Team Lukowich with a 9-7 win over Team Emma Jensen on Friday, improving to 2-3, the same record as Lukowich. However, Robertson won the head-to-head matchup putting them through to the championship round.

From the Asham Express Red Group, both Team Lisa McLeod of Portage and Team Ackland of East St. Paul round out the top three with 3-2 records. McLeod got the higher seeding after the narrow 9-8 head-to-head win against Ackland in Draw 6.

The Championship round kicks off Friday evening beginning at 6:30 p.m. The top three teams will move on to the knockout playoff round, which starts with the semi-final match at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

The team with the best record in the championship round gets a bye to the Manitoba Provincial Scotties championship game, which is slated for Sunday at 2 p.m.