Moose Jaw’s Skylar Ackerman has been through this all before, but you can bet she was hoping not to go through it all again.
Ackerman and her Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre rink of third Madison Johnson, second Chantel Hoag and lead Samantha McLaren will need to put together another long run through the ‘C’ event if they’re to reach the playoff round at the CurlSask Under-18 women’s provincial championship in Regina this weekend.
That’s after she dropped a 6-4 decision to Saskatoon’s Madison Kleiter in the ‘A’ event final on Friday night before taking a 9-6 loss to Weyburn’s Emily Haupstein in her first ‘B’ side contest Saturday morning.
Against Kleiter, Ackerman appeared to be in good shape in the early going, as a deuce in the fifth end gave her a 4-3 lead heading into the break. As it turns out, those would be her final points of the contest as Kleiter took one in the sixth and then stole single points the next two ends to win the ‘A’ event and advance directly to the championship final.
Things looked good in the very early going against Haupstein, as a three-ender to kick off the contest put Ackerman in solid shape. The news was less than good from there: Haupstein got three back in the second end, stole one in the third and then stole another three in the fourth to lead 7-3. Ackerman got two back in the fifth but would get no closer as the two teams exchanged single points the rest of the way.
Ackerman now faces Saltcoats’ Jessica Farquharson in her first ‘C’ event game. Her position in the draw is a familiar one – Ackerman has reached provincial finals and even won a provincial championship coming back through the ‘C’ side. She’ll need to win five straight games in the next 24 hours if she’s to defend her U-18 provincial title.
