Young gun shooting to be top gun

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This article was published 06/02/2009 (6400 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEEPAWA — Ascending achievement means elevated expectations for 2009 Manitoba Curling Tour champion Chelsea Carey at the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The Morden skip and her team of third Kari White, second Kristen Foster and lead Lindsay Titheridge got off to an iffy start (“I think I aged five years in that game”), but Carey goes into today’s final full day of round-robin play on a roll at 4-0.

“Last year, I mean nobody thought we were going to do anything so it’s easier to just come in and throw them up and down and now there’s definitely a little bit more pressure,” Carey, 24, said Thursday after whopping 9-3 and 11-0 wins over Brandon’s Lisa Blixhavn and Thompson’s Charlene Norquay, respectively.

“We’re still a little bit of the underdog, so it’s nice that way. But should we win, it would still be a big surprise to people.

“We’re underdogs for sure because you have Barb Spencer and you have Janet Harvey (both former provincial champions), you have teams that have won this and done this so much.”

Actually, Blixhavn did herself and the field a big favour Thursday night, coming back from a 6-3 deficit to bounce the top-seeded Spencer 10-6 to drop the Fort Rouge curler to 3-1 and from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Following Thursday’s late draw, Carey was at 4-0 along with Holly Scott of Fort Rouge, Harvey, Karen Porritt and Kristy Jenion — all Winnipeg teams.

Despite their youth, the Carey team has plenty of provincials experience at the junior and, increasingly, at the women’s level. And they’ve got Chelsea’s dad, Dan, a former provincial men’s champion, as their coach.

“You draw on your experience, you just learn how to get through (the jitters) and learn how to win those games,” Carey said. “It’s something we’ve spent a lot of time working on…

“You have to forget about consequences. Really, it sounds so simple, but it’s so hard to do.”

Carey plays East St. Paul’s Kim Link (with Spencer at 3-1) today, followed by Spencer tonight and then the unbeaten Scott on Saturday.

The carrot is the playoffs Saturday night and potentially a berth in Sunday’s final, with the winners advancing to the national Scotties in Victoria.

“I played with Barb for two years, I know her very well and it’s always a really tough game to play against her, Kim Link we’ve played a bunch of times this year, they’re a really good team. And Holly Scott, if she gets hot, is really hard to beat. It’s definitely a tough couple of days Friday and Saturday.”

chris.cariou@freepress.mb.ca

Standings

After Draw 8 (Top two teams in each group advance to playoffs)

Black Group W L

Chelsea Carey 4 0

Holly Scott 4 0

Kim Link 3 1

Barb Spencer 3 1

Lisa Blixhavn 2 2

Linda Stewart 0 4

Angela Wickman 0 4

Charlene Norquay 0 4

Red Group

W L

Kristy Jenion 4 0

Janet Harvey 4 0

Karen Porritt 4 0

Maureen Bonar 2 2

Terry Ursel 1 3

Tina Kozak 1 3

Karen Rosser 0 4

Chris Scalena 0 4