Two teams, skipped by PEI’s Suzanne Birt, and New Brunswick’s Sylvie Robichaud, finished round robin play on Saturday with perfect 5-0 records, and have earned byes into this morning’s 11:30 semi-final round of Curl Moncton’s Lady Monctonian cashspiel. Robichaud will be taking on the winners of a quarter-final game at 8:30 this morning between Mary-Anne Arsenault and Marie Christianson, both from Nova Scotia, while Birt awaits the winner of the other quarter-final, between Sandy Comeau of NB and Theresa Breen of NS.
PEICurling.com photo: Suzanne Birt at the 2011 Scotties
In Saturday play, Birt, who won the event in 2008, and whose team this time includes Shelly Bradley, Robyn MacPhee, and Leslie MacDougall, edged Charlottetown clubmate Kim Dolan 5-4, and beat Christianson 7-1, stealing triples in ends four and five to bring the game to an early conclusion. Christianson them went on to beat Dolan 6-4 in the evening draw. Both teams, along with Andrea Kelly of NB and Sarah Rhyno of NS, had 3-2 records, but Christianson grabbed the final quarter-final spot after records were compared. The other quarter-finalists, Arsenault, Breen, and Comeau, all finished the round robin at 4-1.
Two other PEI rinks were in the event, with the Donna Butler rink losing 9-5 to the Jessica Ronalds team from NB, and 7-3 to Robichaud on Saturday to finish at 2-3. The Meaghan Hughes rink lost their three Saturday games to Rhyno, Tanya Phillips of NS, and Comeau, and did not manage to pick up a win in the event.
The final goes at 2:30 this afternoon.
Results website: http://www.playdowns.com/nbca/teams.php?id_cmp=24