SCOTTIES DRAW 1: Opening Wins for Strath, Spencer, Fallis, Brown

Wednesday Jan 06 2010

The Scotties Tournament of Hearts, presented by Monsanto, is underway in Killarney with 3 of the 4 seeded teams winning on the opening draw. Defending champion & top seed Barb Spencer, #4 seed Karen Fallis, and #8 seed Joelle Brown were all winners. Sixth seed Kim Link was upset by Kaileigh Strath - competing in her first Scotties.

The opening draw of any Curl Manitoba championship presents games between the top seeded teams and the lower seeds. The lesser ranked teams can begin their charge to the playoffs on these early draws and the higher ranked teams simply can not afford to lose.

Spencer, Fallis, and Brown all had a fairly easy time of it on the opening draw. All three scored four enders enroute to their victories.

Spencer (Fort Rouge) scored three on the second and stole four on the third end in defeating Liza Park and her Wheat City team 10-4. Brown (FortRouge)  stole a four on the second end in her 10-5 win over Tanis Fortin and her team from The Pas. It was the seventh end when Fallis (Wildewood) scored her four to jump out to a 6-2 lead on Terry Ursel’s Plumas entry. The final in that one was 6-4.

In the other game on the morning draw in Killarney, there was also a four-ender scored. Kim Link (East St Paul) used a four to jump into a 5-2 lead over Kaileigh Strath and her Winkler entry after six ends. Strath came back with two on the seventh and established early control of the eighth end. Link made one double kill but just missed on a second and Strath stole a point to tie. She stole again on the ninth to lead by one coming home. On the home end, Strath’s third Sabrina Neufeld set up the win with a freeze in the back of the four foot wither final rock. Strath was able to make a pair of draws to the other corner of the four – link hit and rolled out both times, leaving the Neufeld stone as a stolen point in a 7-5 victory.

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