VANCOUVER (World Curling Federation) – Scotland’s Eve Muirhead won a playoff game 7-4 over Switzerland’s Martina Baumann to advance to Sunday morning’s championship final at the 2009 World Junior Curling Championships.
In the other “Page” playoff game between the third and fourth-place round robin finishers, Canada’s Kaitlyn Lawes, the 2008 world bronze medallist, made a pressure-packed draw to the four-foot to defeat Russia’s Margarita Fomina by a 4-3 score to advance to Saturday’s semifinal.
Scotland will await the winner of the Switzerland-Canada semifinal match, which takes place Saturday evening at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.
The two-time defending champions from Scotland scored three in the fourth end to open the scoring. The Swiss, who had finished first during the round robin, took two in the sixth end and stole the seventh to tie the match at 4-4.
The Scots then blanked the eighth and went hard for the deuce in the ninth, and were rewarded with a three-count for a 7-4 lead coming home.
“We had stepped up from the start, played well from the start,” said Muirhead, who will jet to Korea for the World Women’s Championship after Sunday’s final.
Lawes’ Canadians scored one point in the third end and stole another in the fourth. The teams then swapped singles in end five through seven but the Canadians found themselves in trouble in the ninth.
Holding a 3-2 lead with last-stone advantage but facing three Russian stones, Canadian third Jenna Loder made a runback double and Lawes made a come-around tap, but Fomina lay down a great guard on her last effort. Lawes’ final attempt was a wrong-way draw to the edge of the four-foot rings, which just missed, and Russia stole for the tie.
In the 10th end, Canada was in trouble again until second Laryssa Grenkow made a runback double and clearance. In the end, Lawes had a path to the edge of the four-foot on her final draw attempt and… thought she had made it.
“I didn’t know if we’d won or not,” said a wide-eyed Lawes. “I was shaking hands (with her opponents) and I still didn’t know.
“I think I’m in shock, a little bit.”
Canada defeated Switzerland 8-2 in the round robin.
“I’m looking forward to (the rematch),” said Lawes. “They’re going to make a lot of shots and it should be a good game to watch.”
Saturday’s women’s and men’s semifinals take place at 7 pm Pacific time, 11 pm Atlantic. The men’s Page playoffs kicked off at noon Pacitic (4 pm Atlantic) with Canada’s Brett Gallant facing Denmark’s Rasmus Stjerne and Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson battling defending champion Chris Plys of the United States.
The 2009 WJCC is hosted by the Vancouver Olympic Centre, which welcomes the 2010 Olympic curling and Paralympic Wheelchair curling competitions next year.
Live scoring, statistics and shot-by-shot graphics of every match are available at: www.wjcc.curlit.com with results mirrored at the WCF Results website at: results.worldcurling.org
The event website is located at: www.wjcc2009.com