The Veronica Smith rink will get the opportunity to defend their women’s title at the Pepsi Provincial Junior Curling Championships, which wrap up on Monday. The Cornwall foursome will be the only team to go through the women’s round robin undefeated, giving them first place, and a bye to the championship round final, scheduled for Monday evening at 7. They defeated Cornwall clubmates the Amanda MacLean rink by a 9-4 score this morning, aided by a four point fifth end. Smith has a bye in the final round robin draw at 2 this afternoon. In other morning games, Kaleigh MacKay from Crapaud and the Silver Fox, beat Cornwall’s Meghan Ching 6-1, while Jenny McLean from the host club scored a deuce in the final end to edge Charlottetown’s Lauren Moerike 9-8.
Going into the final round robin draw, MacLean sits at 4-1, with Keen at 3-2 and MacKay at 2-3. MacLean, who beat Keen in round robin play, has locked up second place in the championship round, with Keen and MacKay in contention for the final slot. McLean, Moerike and Ching are at 1-4. The matchups in the final round robin draw are Keen vs McLean, MacKay vs Moerike, and MacLean vs Ching. The semi-finals between the second and third place teams go Monday at 2 pm, with the final at 7.
Meanwhile, the teams are set for the 7 pm Page game between the A and B men’s qualifiers. Kyle Holland from the Charlottetown Curling Complex qualified out of the A section of the triple knockout round on Saturday morning, with a 5-2 win over Cornwall’s Matthew MacLean. On Sunday morning, MacLean took the B qualifier, defeating defending champion Tyler Smith and his Montague rink by an 8-1 score, stealing singles in the first two ends, and deuces in ends three and four to lead 6-0. Smith got on the board with a single in five, but two MacLean more singles in six and seven brought the game to an early conclusion.
The C and D winners for this evening’s Page round will be determined with the 2 pm draw this afternoon. Two host-club rinks, skipped by Alex MacFadyen and Justin Campbell, will battle for the C spot, while Leslie Noye from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton will play Smith for the final position in the championship round. [Update: the Noye rink have decided to forfeit that game, due to weather conditions, so Smith will advance to the Page round]. The winner of the Page A vs B will advance directly to Monday’s 7 pm final, with the loser taking on the winner of the Page C vs D in the 2 pm semi-final.
The men’s and women’s winners from Monday’s finals will advance to the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, January 18-26, 2014 in Liverpool NS.