And with so much at stake this year, with the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts right here at home Feb. 15-23, who could blame her?
Barker and her Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre rink of third Deanna Doig, second Christie Gamble and lead Danielle Sicinski won six straight games over the weekend to take top spot in the Saskatoon Nutana stop in the Saskatchewan Women’s Curling Tour (SWCT) this past weekend.
The victory was Barker’s second in as many outings after her win last weekend at the Regina Highland tournament, but this one was especially important — the Nutana spiel is the only SWCT event to offer a direct berth into the provincial championships.
Things got off to a fairly close start for the 2017 Viterra Scotties champion, as she battled to a 6-4 win over Regina’s Kyla Thies in her opening contest. As it turns out, that would be the last close game until the tournament semifinal.
Barker would score points in five of six ends to take an 8-1 win over Shalon Fleming in the ‘A’ semi before qualifying for the championship round with another six-end win, this one 8-2 over seven-time former Saskatchewan provincial champion Michelle Englot.
Barker kept the roll going with a 7-2 victory over Saskatoon’s Jessica Mitchell in the championship quarter-final before finally running into another close game against Regina’s Lorraine Schneider. Barker trailed 4-2 through six ends in that contest, but a deuce in the seventh tied the game and a steal of one in the eighth sent her to the final.
There, it was once again a comeback victory, this time over Saskatoon’s Jana Tisdale. Tisdale led 3-2 through five ends when Barker scored a pair in the sixth and stole two in the seventh to earn the 6-3 victory.
With the victory, Barker will be able to bypass the CurlSask Challenge and Last Chance spiels and advance directly to the 12-team provincial tournament Jan. 24-28 in Melville.
The Barker rink is the first team to qualify for the Viterra Scotties.
Berths will also go to the SWCT points champion and runner-up, along with three spots from the Challenge Dec. 13-15 in Unity and three from the Last Chance Jan. 3-5 in Estevan.
The final three berths will go to the top three Saskatchewan rinks in the Curling Canada Canadian Team Ranking System, which ranks teams based on their performances at national-level events.
Currently, reigning senior women’s world champion and seven-time former provincial champ Sherry Anderson is the top Saskatchewan team in the rankings at 14th with 61.509 points. Defending provincial champion Robyn Silvernagle sits 24th with 43.726 points and Barker is 27th with 36.674. With Barker having already qualified, former Moose Jaw competitor and two-time Viterra Scotties champion Amber Holland would land the third spot, as she sits 28th overall with 36.363 points.
