Nova Scotia skip helms brilliant run as team within reach of top spot at Scotties

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This article was published 02/02/2018 (3162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PENTICTON, B.C. — Just call Mary-Anne Arsenault the skip of Team Under-The-Radar.

True, the Halifax curler is a seasoned high-performance veteran, who knows her way around a Scotties. She was part of the Colleen Jones teams that won five Canadian titles and two world championships, in the early 2000s.

Still, her team is ranked 32nd in Canada, and she led them into the 2018 Scotties as eighth seed.

Yet while most of the spotlight fell on the top-ranked contenders, Arsenault, third Christina Black, second Jennifer Baxter and lead Jennifer Crouse quietly made a brilliant run — one that had them within reach of the very top spot.

The Nova Scotian rink rose to 8-2 on Friday afternoon with an 10-4 win over British Columbia. That kept them floating on the surface of a jumbled playoff race, and with key wins against Alberta and Northern Ontario in their pocket.

“We’re just throwing well,” Arsenault said. “We’ve worked hard, the last couple of years. Jen (Baxter) and I have been together for 10 years now, J.C.’s been with us for two years, Christina for four.

“We’ve just worked really hard, and all our hard work is coming to fruition.”

The win kept them tied atop the standings with Manitoba champion Jones (who beat Alberta) and wild card Kerri Einarson (who fell to Michelle Englot’s desperate Team Canada). All were guaranteed at least a tiebreaker.

Arsenault had a chance to push for the 1-vs-2 Page playoff game — which didn’t surprise Jones.

“We’ve been playing them for years,” Jones said. “They’re a tough team. We knew when we looked at our pool that they were going to be a tough game for us. We thought they’d be one of the teams that would advance through.”

So what was left to be decided, in the final game of the Scotties pre-playoff rounds?

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Jones was set to face Englot’s Team Canada, while Einarson was going head-to-head with Alberta’s Casey Scheidegger, who needed a win to be likely to stay alive. Northern Ontario was about to tackle Team B.C.

And Arsenault? Her last opponent was Ontario’s Hollie Duncan, one of two teams out of playoff contention.

The late draw was scheduled to end long after press time, but winnipegfreepress.com will have the full story.

Playoffs kick off at 4 p.m. CST on Saturday with the 3-vs-4 Page playoff; the 1-vs-2 is set for 9 p.m. CST. The Canadian women’s curling championship wraps up Sunday with a morning semifinal, and a final at 6 p.m. CST.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

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.