And for good reason.
On top of their win over Northern Ontario on Tuesday, Eddy and her rink of third Sadie Pinksen, second Alison Griffin and lead Kaitlin MacDonald have put together solid showing after solid showing, taking team after team to their limit despite their overall lack of experience and playing time together.
And no more was that on display that during Wednesday’s morning draw against Team Canada’s Chelsea Carey.
Eddy’s final shot into a crowded house doubled out a pair of Carey counters and forced a measurement for the final 10th-end tally. The result? Steal of one for Canada.
And a 6-5 win for Carey.
That close, folks, just that close.
“They played incredible,” lauded Carey. “We weren’t at our best but they made a lot of shots and even when we had them in trouble Lori made a couple of clutch shots to save them. She needed the full four foot in one end going away and stone-cold drew the pin like it was nothing. They played great and threw everything at us and we were lucky to pull it off.”
For her part, Eddy carried the same message she has through every close call – an extreme level of pride in her crew for their amazing performance.
“I think this week has exceeded all our expectations,” said Eddy, who saw her team drop to 1-5. “All week in this pool we were just afraid of being outclassed and I think we’ve done a great job hanging in with these big teams.”
And how.
A three-ender in the fifth by Eddy was the only multiple-point score in the contest, and would lead to Nunavut holding a 5-3 lead heading into the eighth. Carey and her rink of third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachel Brown put things together from there, though, scoring one in the eighth and adding a steal in nine to set up the climactic final end.
“Very relieved,” Carey said when asked of her take on the game. “We had a bunch of chances in that end and just had a rub on two of Sarah’s otherwise we’re in a really good spot. My last one ended up okay and she had a shot, then it comes to the measure and we were fortunate it went our way.”
Eddy came into the contest just hoping to say touch with Canada. To do a whole lot more made the final result that much easier to take
“Absolutely, we’re doing well and hanging in with the big teams here,” she said. “Chelsea made a great shot on her last one, we were close and if you can take the defending champion down to last rock that’s a good thing.”
Carey improved to 4-2 and sits in a three-way tie for second in Pool A, making the final two draws Wednesday all the more important. Canada closes out their round robin against New Brunswick (3-3) in the evening draw.
Eddy, meanwhile, will close out her Scotties campaign tonight against Quebec (0-6).
At some point, B.C.’s Corryn Brown is going to go from just the ‘youngest team at the Scotties’ to a straight-up, bona fide contender.
And that time is pretty much right now.
Brown and her rink of third Erin Pincott, second Darlene Pewarchuk and lead Ashley Klymchuk scored four in the fourth end to build a 5-1 lead over Newfoundland and Labrador’s Erica Curtis on their way to an 8-6 victory in the morning draw Wednesday.
The win saw Brown improve to 4-2 and move into a tie for third in Pool B.
“I think it’s a pretty big stage and the biggest one we’ve been on, so there’s always going to be a learning curve involved there and we’ve done well,” Brown said. “There have been a few games we should have won, and against [Ontario’s Rachel] Homan and [Wild Card] Jennifer Jones we were one shot away from winning. So we just have to be more precise in those situations and we should do well.”
Curtis, third Erin Porter, second Julie Devereaux and lead Beth Hamilton trailed 8-2 heading into the eighth but put together a comeback quest with two in eight and another deuce in nine before falling short.
They dropped to 1-5 and will close out their Scotties against Wild Card in the afternoon draw.
Brown, meanwhile, takes on Nova Scotia (3-3) in their final prelim round robin game.
“We’re going to have to come up with a big game in our next one to guarantee our spot in the championship round, so we’re really going to have to come out well,” Brown said.
Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt is a win away from guaranteeing herself a spot in the championship pool after an 11-5 win over Yukon’s Hailey Birnie on Wednesday morning.
Birt and her rink of third Marie Christianson, second Meaghan Hughes and lead Michelle McQuaid trailing 3-2 heading into the fifth end, but a five-spot that frame gave them control of the contest and steal of three the following end essentially locked things up.
“We’re feeling good, we just have to keep plugging away at our game and hope we win a few more,” said Birt, who now has a 4-2 record and is tied with B.C. for third in Pool B.
“We’re feeling good with the ice, we have good draw weight which is what you need deep into games. “We’re reading it well and getting rocks in good positions, so we’re comfortable.”
Birnie, third Chelsea Duncan, second Gabrielle Plonka and lead Kimberly Tuor fell to 0-6 and will finish their Scotties showing against Ontario in the afternoon draw.
Birt will play Northwest Territories (2-4) in the same draw, and with a win will lock up a championship pool spot.
“You try not to think about it because you want the best possible round robin record, so we’ll just come out in the afternoon and have another good one,” she said.
Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville might have endured one of her toughest losses of the tournament on Tuesday, but one loss does not a Scotties make, and she’s still very, very much in the hunt after a 4-3 win over Alberta’s Laura Walker Wednesday morning.
McCarville, third Kendra Lilly, second Ashley Sippala and lead Jennifer Gates found themselves in a defensive battle from the get-go, with the lone deuce of the game in the sixth end giving them a 4-1 lead.
Walker would get one back in seven and keep the pressure on, forcing a pair of blanks before stealing one in 10 and falling just short.
“Coming into this last day, when we looked at the schedule at the beginning of the week, we knew that today was going to be a tough day and it would be two tough teams we’d be playing,” said McCarville, who threw a perfect 100 per cent game. “So we knew after yesterday that we had to play better, focus on the ice and bear down and make the key shots that needed to be made.”
With a 4-2 record, a win in their final game Wednesday night would guarantee a spot in the championship pool. But it’ll have to come in the toughest of situations: against Saskatchewan’s Robyn Silvernagle, also 4-2 and also seeking to avoid any tiebreakers.
