Jones team bounces back to victory

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This article was published 18/02/2015 (4178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOOSE JAW, Sask. — It didn’t take long for Jennifer Jones to jump back in the win column after suffering her first loss at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

On Wednesday night, Jones and her Team Manitoba rink returned to the ice at night, and beat New Brunswick’s Sylvie Robichaud 9-6.

Jones opened the match with a big three-point end. Robichaud did find offence against her, picking up a deuce in the second end another deuce in four to tie the game at 4-4. But Jones snagged another three-ender in the fifth end to carry a wide lead into the break. The teams traded singles for the next four ends, and Jones ran Robichaud out of rocks in the 10th to bring on handshakes.

It was a welcome recovery, after the Manitobans lost a mucky 9-6 match to Nova Scotia veteran Mary-Anne Arsenault in the morning. Jones fell behind early in the error-plagued game, after Arsensault picked up a third-end deuce to take a 3-1 lead. Jones could only muster a single in response, while Arsensault added another deuce in the fifth end to carry a 5-2 lead into the break. A single and a steal of one narrowed the gap.

But the devastating end came in the eighth, when one of Jones’ shots removed one of her own rocks, allowing Arsensault to draw for a three-spot and an 8-4 lead. Jones battled back, grabbing a deuce in nine to narrow the gap. But in the 10th end, though Jones tried strategizing a last-ditch attempt to force an extra end, a hammer takeout by Arsensault sealed her win.

It was the first real stumble for Jones, third Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn McEwen, who had rolled undefeated through the first half of the round robin, and their first round-robin loss since 2012.

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The split day brings the Manitobans up to 7-1 on the week — just below Alberta’s Val Sweeting, who is undefeated through eight — and kept them above Team Canada’s Rachel Homan, who also lost to Arsenault in the morning before cruising to a 9-5 win over P.E.I.’s Suzanne Birt at night.

Manitoba has three more games left in the round robin. They’ll face P.E.I. at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning, and take on northern Ontario’s Tracy Horgan that afternoon. On Friday morning, they’ll battle Sweeting in a last-draw tilt that could have significant playoff seeding ramifications.

Melissa Martin
Reporter-at-large

Melissa Martin reports and opines for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Every piece of reporting Melissa produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.