Jones adds to growing legend at Scotties

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This article was published 24/02/2023 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KAMLOOPS — The legend of Jennifer Jones continues to grow.

With a convincing 9-4 victory over British Columbia’s Clancy Grandy in Friday afternoon’s Page qualifier game, Jones becomes the first player in Scotties Tournament of Hearts history to reach 22 career playoff wins.

Jones previously shared the record with former teammate Jill Officer.

But more importantly, the victory secured Jones and Team Manitoba a spot in the final four at the Canadian women’s curling nationals in Kamloops. For third Karlee Burgess, second Mackenzie Zacharias, and alternating leads Lauren Lenentine and Emily Zacharias, it’s their first time making it this far.

“It’s really exciting. This is a dream come true,” said Mackenzie, 23, who skipped the group to the last two Scotties before Jones joined the team this past offseason.

“Ever since you were a little girl, you want to be in the Scotties, but then now to be in the playoffs is a dream come true. I’m so excited for the next couple of games.”

The other Page qualifier saw Nova Scotia’s Christina Black snatch a victory away from Ontario’s Rachel Homan.

Black scored a pair in the 10th before stealing the game-winner in the extra end to send Homan home.

Homan, a three-time national champion, hasn’t won the event since 2017.

“It’s not frustrating when you’re losing against the top teams out there,” said Homan on her drought.

“Everyone is trying to win, and they outplayed us.”

Heading into Friday’s late draw — which concluded past press deadline — Black had won three-straight games with steals. Black started the day with a 7-6 extra end win over Wild Card No. 1’s Kaitlyn Lawes in a Pool A tiebreaker. Black beat Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges in a nailbiter Thursday night to make the tiebreaker.

“We’re a team that never gives up. We know we’ve won lots of different ways. We just have to stay in it until the end and give ourselves a chance and make her throw her last rock and yeah, we were able to win,” said Black.

“I feel like there’s a little bit of the curling gods on our side helping us out. We’ve just got so many people cheering us on. It just gives you such great energy.”

Jones, Black, Team Canada’s Kerri Einarson, and Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville are the last four teams standing from the 18-team field. Einarson won Pool A with a spotless 8-0 record while McCarville — the only team to beat Jones this week — finished on top of Pool B at 7-1.

Friday night saw the Page seeding games take place with Jones playing Einarson and Black meeting McCarville.

The winners advance to Saturday’s 1-versus-2-Page playoff game at 8 p.m. CT. The losers must settle for the 3-versus-4 game in the afternoon (3 p.m. CT).

Jones, a six-time Scotties champion who can set another record this week if she wins her seventh, feels her team of twentysomethings can shine under the bright lights.

“They love the big games. Win or lose, they have fun and I admire that in them, so, I think they’re going to be ready,” said Jones.

As the reigning, defending three-time champion, Gimli’s Einarson remains the favourite. McCarville, who’s at her 10th Scotties, has been knocking on the door for a while as she’s a two-time finalist (2022 and 2016). McCarville also took home bronze in 2010.

As for Black, she’s no rookie with this being her fifth trip to nationals. Her best result was a third-place finish in 2018.

“We’ve been confident all week and we’ve been really close all week to making everything, basically,” said Black.

“We say just be ourselves, just be us, and just keep making shots.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31