Jones suffers second loss in Olympic qualifier

By: Paul Wiecek Posted: 5:30 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017

OTTAWA — Jennifer Jones lost her second in a row at the Roar of the Rings Thursday afternoon and now has her back to the wall as she attempts to defend her 2014 Olympic gold medal.

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OTTAWA — Jennifer Jones lost her second in a row at the Roar of the Rings Thursday afternoon and now has her back to the wall as she attempts to defend her 2014 Olympic gold medal.

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OTTAWA — Jennifer Jones lost her second in a row at the Roar of the Rings Thursday afternoon and now has her back to the wall as she attempts to defend her 2014 Olympic gold medal.

A 7-3 loss to Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville dropped Jones’ record to 5-2 and means she now needs a win over hometown favourite Rachel Homan (5-1) on the final draw of the round-robin Friday night or she could miss the playoffs entirely.

It’s a stunning turn of events for a Jones squad that opened at 5-0 and looked like they were the team to beat just a couple days ago.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Skip Jennifer Jones, right, and third Kaitlyn Lawes look at the house during the ninth end during the Olympic curling trials, Thursday in Ottawa. — THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Skip Jennifer Jones, right, and third Kaitlyn Lawes look at the house during the ninth end during the Olympic curling trials, Thursday in Ottawa.

“Obviously you come in here and you never want to lose back-to-back and we did,” Jones said afterward. “We’ve put ourselves in a backs-to-the-wall situation where we’re going to have to win tomorrow and hopefully give ourselves a chance.”

If Jones loses to Homan Friday night, she’ll need McCarville to lose one of her final two games or Jones will be eliminated.

McCarville plays Chelsea Carey, who improved to 6-0 Thursday afternoon with a 9-8 win over Julie Tipping, and Valerie Sweeting (3-3) on Friday.

Jones fell behind 4-1 to McCarville heading into the fifth end break and spent the rest of the game chasing a skip in McCarville who is at her best when she’s playing with a lead.

Carey clinched a tie-breaker game with Thursday’s win and needs just one more victory in her final two games to clinch a berth in Sunday afternoon’s women’s final.

Kevin Koe, meanwhile, already has his berth in the men’s final thanks to a 7-4 win over John Morris Thursday afternoon that improved Koe to 7-0.

History suggests the two teams who earn the bye to the final at this event have a huge advantage. In five previous trials events, nine of the 10 winners had the bye to the final — Shannon Kleibrink’s win in 2005 being the only exception.

Meanwhile, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen (4-2) could clinch a tiebreaker with a win Thursday evening over Brad Jacobs (2-4).

McEwen is catching Jacobs at a good time — with his fourth loss here Thursday morning to Reid Carruthers, the 2014 Olympic gold medallist is now all but eliminated from playoff contention.

Carruthers, at 4-3, is still alive but will need to win his final game Friday night against Brendan Bottcher (3-3) and have either McEwen or Brad Gushue, who is tied with McEwen for second at 4-2, take a loss in their respective final two games.

email: paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek