(by Eric McCarthy)
O’LEARY – The P.E.I. Canada Games curling team will be packing momentum when they head over to Halifax later this week.
Skip Amanda MacLean and her Maple Leaf Curling Club team of third stone Kassinda Bulger, second stone Emily Gray and lead Aleya Quilty captured the Sylvan Learning P.E.I. provincial 17-and-under girls curling championship in convincing fashion in O’Leary on Monday morning.
They defeated Veronica Smith’s Cornwall rink 10-3 in the C section final of the triple-knockout championship. Having already won the A and B finals, the MacLean rink won the championship without the need of playing a playoff round. She posted a 6-0 (won-lost) record. Smith was her opponent in the finals of all three sections.
Members of the runner-up Smith rink are Veronica Smith, Katie Fullerton, Sabrina Smith, Chloe McCloskey and coach Paul Smith.
Both the MacLean and the Smith rinks will advance to the Sylvan Learning Atlantic under-17 championships at the Charlottetown Curling Club from April 15 to 17.
Amanda MacLean’s brother, Matthew MacLean, and his team of Marshall Smallman, Kevin Gallant and Allan MacLean missed out on their bid to repeat as boys’ champions. Alex Matters’ Charlottetown rink scored all its points in the middle ends – a deuce in the fourth and a steal of three in five – to defeat MacLean 5-4 in Monday morning’s C final.
That put Matters into the championship round against Cornwall’s Jeffrey Taylor rink. A steal of one in the fifth and the game’s only deuce in the seventh end powered Taylor to a 4-1 victory in the first game of the championship.
But Taylor couldn’t repeat the feat in their second meeting. With singles in each of the first two ends, Matters had already doubled his output from his first meeting of the day with Taylor.
Matters and his team of Chris Gallant, who throws last, second stone Kyle Holland and lead Andrew Cameron built up a 5-1 cushion with three in the fourth. The teams traded deuces the rest of the way. Matters won the championship 7-5.
Derrick Cameron and Peter Gallant coach the Matters rink.
Other members of the runner-up rink, who also get to play in the Atlantics, are Alex Sutherland, Alex Jenkins, Jonathan Schut and coaches AJ Campbell and Bryan Sutherland.