(by Ryan Cooke)
SUMMERSIDE – Lois Fowler’s Manitoba squad isn’t going down without a fight, unfortunately for Quebec’s Catherine Derick.
Alberta skip Deb Santos and her rink from the St. Albert Curling Club clinched second spot in the round robin on Friday afternoon.
Fowler came into the final round-robin match needing a win and a little help from British Columbia to keep her hopes alive at the 2013 Canadian senior curling championships, and that’s exactly what she got.
Minutes after downing the previously-undefeated Nova Scotia squad, Quebec fell 7-6 to British Columbia’s Karen Lepine in a dramatic 10th end.
With British Columbia sitting shot rock, sandwiched between two Quebec stones, Derick attempted to maneuver through the guards and push back another of her own stones to catch the side of the shot rock while avoiding her other stones. The shot narrowly missed.
It was a gutsy shot, but Derick couldn’t help but go for it.
“It was either that or go for an outside draw,” Derick said. “But I saw that shot there. We just missed it by about a half a centimetre.”
The winner of Saturday’s 9 am tiebreaker will go on to face Santos in the semifinals. The winner of that matchup will face Nova Scotia’s Pinkney in the final on Sunday at noon.