SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. -
The Kathy O'Rourke rink's run towards P.E.I.'s first-ever Canadian women's curling championship came to a heart-breaking end early Sunday evening.
O'Rourke, who calls the game and throws second stones for the Al Ledgerwood-coached rink from the Charlottetown Curling Club, lost 8-7 in an extra end to Team Canada's Jennifer Jones in a nail-biting final of the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. It was Jones' third straight Canadian title.
"Certainly we would have liked to make history and finish that off, but we gave it our best and it just turned out to be a couple inches short today," O'Rourke said.
It was the first time P.E.I. had ever qualified for the Scotties final. Erin Carmody, who handles skip stones; Geri-Lynn Ramsay, who throws third stones; lead Tricia Affleck, and fifth-player Shelly Bradley are O'Rourke's teammates.
"They played great and (Erin) has a great future ahead of her," acknowledged Jones. "They were a lot of fun to play against and they will be back here again."
Carmody and Ramsay, both 21-years-old, were participating in their first Scotties after representing P.E.I. at the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Canadian junior championships.
"I hope that we inspired a lot of people," said Carmody. "If you really believe in yourself, you can go really far."
Key point
The ninth end turned out to be key for Team Canada. Carmody's draw for a single and a 7-5 lead coming home was just light, allowing Team Canada to steal two and take a 7-6 lead.
"We missed the draw against the two (in the ninth end)," O'Rourke said. "The girls got fooled a little bit on the sweep and it got to the fudge part faster than we thought.
"The weight was perfect and we weren't really sweeping that hard. All of a sudden it got to the centre line and it just stopped. I don't think it was nerves at all. That's what happens sometimes."
Two previous meetings
P.E.I. and Team Canada finished round-robin play with identical 8-3 (won-lost) records. P.E.I. was awarded first place based on its head-to-head win over Team Canada in the round robin. But Team Canada earned a bye to the final with an 8-5 win over P.E.I. in the 1-vs.-2 Page playoff game Friday night. Saturday afternoon, Ontario's Krista McCarville beat British Columbia's Kelly Scott 6-4 in the third-vs.-four playoff game. P.E.I. then defeated Ontario 10-6 in Saturday night's semifinal.
"Erin just came out making everything," said O'Rourke. "She really didn't give Krista much of a chance, because she just put every rock exactly where she needed it to be."
After curling 60 per cent against Team Canada on Friday night, Carmody bounced back with a 93-per-cent performance against Ontario.
"I was pretty down on myself after last night (Friday), but the girls were really good to pick me back up," said Carmody. "We just said, 'We're going to go out here and have some fun,' and that's what we did."
The Jones rink will return as Team Canada to next year's Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Charlottetown from Feb. 19 to 27. But before that, they will wear the Canadian colours at the Ford world women's curling championship in Swift Current, Sask., from March 20 to 28.
With files from Canwest News Service and Canadian Press.
