(by Jean Mills) An experienced Nova Scotia team, featuring veterans Mary-Anne Arsenault, Kim Kelly and Colleen Jones – making her 21st appearance at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts –had their hands full in a 9-4 loss to rookie skip Allison Ross and her young team out of Quebec.

It was a defensive game throughout, with both teams keeping few rocks in play. Misses by Nova Scotia in the third end allowed Quebec to steal one point, and the trouble for Nova Scotia continued in the third, when Arsenault’s final shot wrecked on a guard, allowing Quebec to steal another point and take a 3-0 lead.

But the game changed direction in the fifth end when a series of Quebec misses gave Arsenault an open draw for three – and a tie game heading into the break. A patient Nova Scotia held Quebec to a single in eight, and they survived a scare in the ninth to score one and go into the tenth tied at four, without hammer.

Then the wheels fell off. With a house full of rocks, a missed raise take-out by Arsenault left Quebec lying five, and that’s where the game ended – a 9-5 victory for Ross and her young team of Audrée Dufresne, Brittany O’Rourke and Sasha Beauchamp, who play out of the Glenmore Curling Club in Montréal.

“It was the same style of game we played in a bonspiel, when we played them in November,” said Ross. “In November we lost against them. This time we finished well against them. I think we’re two evenly matched teams.”

Click for full story and post-game interviews at the CCA website.