(by Jody Jewers)

You could tell Suzanne Birt needed a hug when she came off the ice Wednesday afternoon at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the Civic Centre.

After suffering gutwrenching losses of 4-3 to British Columbia’s Kelly Scott in a morning contest and 7-6 to Kerry Galusha of the Yukon-Northwest Territories in the afternoon session to all but mathematically eliminate any chance of reaching the playoffs at the Canadian women’s curling championship, Birt’s husband Trevor and their 21-month-old daughter Jesse were the first to greet her as she came off the ice after the loss to the Territories toward a media scrum searching for answers.

Birt, third Shelly Bradley, second Robyn MacPhee and lead Leslie MacDougall out of the Charlottetown Curling sit with a 4-5 record with two games left to go. They take on Manitoba’s Cathy Overton-Clapham on Thursday morning and finish with Stacie Devereaux of Newfoundland and Labrador on Thursday night.

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