CRAPAUD, P.E.I. — The Lauren Ferguson rink from the Cornwall Curling Club emerged as the Pepsi provincial junior women’s curling champions.
They clinched the title with an 8-3 win over the Rachel MacLean team in the first of two possible championship-round games at the Crapaud Community Curling Club on Sunday afternoon.
This is a repeat provincial title for Ferguson, who has a new team this year that includes third stone Sydney Howatt, second stone Kristie Rogers and lead Rachel O’Connor, along with coach Pat Quilty.
The Ferguson rink will join the P.E.I. junior men’s champions, the Tyler Smith squad from the Montague Curling Rink, at the 2020 New Holland Canadian junior championships in Langley, B.C., from Jan. 18 to 26.
Other members of the Carl Nicholson-coached MacLean team are third stone Amy Spence, second stone Avery Nicholson and lead Izzy Tatlock.
Won two sections
Ferguson won two of the event’s three sections and would have won the championship with a win in either of the two championship-round games, but only needed the first.
In the deciding match, Ferguson, who won six of her seven games in the event with her only loss to MacLean, opened with a single and stole a deuce and two singles before letting MacLean on the board with a deuce to take a 5-2 lead into the fifth-end break. MacLean stole a single in the sixth, but singles in the next three ends gave Ferguson an 8-3 lead and the game.
On Sunday morning, Ferguson took the C final of the modified triple-knockout draw with a close 5-4 win over the Katie Shaw team. All four of the junior women’s rinks curl out of Cornwall.
Also on Sunday morning, the Smith team maintained its unbeaten record into the C final, where they defeated the Mitchell Schut rink from Cornwall 10-6. Since Smith won all three sections of the draw, the championship round was not needed.
