Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland defeated Andrea Kelly’s New Brunswick rink 7-6 to clinch first place in the round robin. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
(The Canadian Press) Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland clinched first place in the round robin at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts today with a 7-6 win over Andrea Kelly of New Brunswick.
At 9-1 with a game remaining against B.C., no other team can catch the Kroneau Curling Club rink with two draws to go in the preliminary round.
As the top seed, Holland’s rink will start each playoff game with last-rock advantage.
The top four teams at the end of the round robin advance to the playoffs with any ties for fourth solved by tiebreaker games.
The top two teams meet in a Page playoff game Friday and the winner advances directly to Sunday’s championship game. The loser faces the winner of the playoff between the third and fourth seeds Saturday.
Ontario’s Rachel Homan and Nova Scotia’s Heather Smith-Dacey both won this morning to assure themselves of at least a tiebreaker game at 7-3. Canada’s Jennifer Jones (6-3) still has two games to play.
Smith-Dacey scored two with her last shot of the game to beat Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink 8-7. Alberta’s playoff hopes are on thin ice with the loss. Kleibrink needed teams ahead of her in the standings to lose their remaining games in order to stay in contention.
Homan bounced back from a pair of losses to beat Kerry Galusha of the Territories 9-3. Manitoba’s Cathy Overton-Clapham dropped an 8-5 decision to Suzanne Birt of P.E.I.
The host team was 5-5, while Manitoba fell to 3-7 alongside New Brunswick and the Territories.