The Amanda MacLean rink from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary doubled Cornwall’s Veronica Smith foursome by a 6-3 score this afternoon to win PEI’s Junior Women’s berth in the 2011 Canada Games, February 11-27 2011 in Halifax. The MacLean rink, which includes third Kassinda Bulger, second stone Emily Gray, and lead Aleya Quilty, with coaches Glen MacLean and Shelley Gray, followed a single in the first end with a stolen deuce in the second. Smith responded with singles in ends three and four, but MacLean came back with a pair in the fifth, for a 5-2 lead. The teams traded singles in six and seven, and MacLean ran Smith out of rocks in the eighth.
L-R: Shelley Gray (coach),Aleya Quilty, Emily Gray, Kassinda Bulger, Amanda MacLean, Glen MacLean (coach)
MacLean finished double round robin play in first place, with a 5-1 win-loss record, and advanced to the final against Smith, who ended round robin play in second place at 4-2. Jenny MacLean of Summerside finished at 2-4, while Leah Deveau from Montague ended play at 1-4. In the final round robin draw on Sunday morning, Smith doubled Jenny McLean 6-3, and MacLean beat Deveau 7-4. Other members of the runner-up Smith team are Katie Fullerton, Sabrina Smith, and Chloe McCloskey, with coaches Sarah Fullerton and Paul Smith.
In the Junior Men’s section, the Cornwall rink skipped by 11 year old Tyler Smith, with third Parker O’Connor, second Noah O’Connor, and lead Tyson Smith, with coach Kevin Smith, defeated their clubmates, the Jeff Taylor team, by an 8-4 score in this afternoon’s tiebreaker between the first and second place teams, earning a bye to the Junior Men’s final, Monday at 1:30 pm. Matthew MacLean of O’Leary beat Tony Nabuurs of Montague 8-3 in the tiebreaker between the third and fourth place teams. MacLean now plays Taylor at 9 am Monday, with the winner facing Smith in the final.
The tiebreaker rounds were needed because all four junior men’s teams finished the double round robin with identical 3-3 win-loss records, and PEI Curling Association rules dictate that a team cannot be eliminated from the championship round solely on round robin results. Draw to the button results were then used to rank the teams for the tiebreaker round, with Taylor awarded first place, followed by Smith at second, MacLean at third, and Nabuurs ranked in fourth position.