In her first ever Grand Slam of Curling appearance, Lethbridge’s Casey Scheidegger is making quite an impression.
After defeating Rachel Homan in the ‘B’ event before reaching the playoffs, Scheidegger’s rink pulled off a stunning 6-5 upset over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones in the quarter-finals of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Meridian Canadian Open at the North Battleford Civic Centre.
“We’re just so thrilled and so happy with how everything has been going for us here,” Scheidegger said. “Hopefully we can keep everything rolling and playing as well as we have so far this week.”
Down 4-1 after five ends, Scheidegger took advantage of some uncharacteristic misses from the 2014 Olympic gold medalist as she scored five points in the final three ends.
She sealed the win with an open draw to the eight-foot in the eighth end after Jones just missed connecting on a takeout.
“Someone called us the dragon slayers earlier but that name sounds a little bit harsh,” Scheidegger said.
“There were some mistakes that we took advantage of, but it’s a great feeling for us to know that we can play right with the top teams in the world on a stage like this.”
Awaiting Scheidegger in tonight’s semifinal is fellow Albertan Val Sweeting, after her Edmonton-based rink defeated Sudbury’s Tracy Fleury 7-4.
“I felt like we came out really well after having a couple of days off,” Sweeting said. “We were able to pick up on the ice, took our chances when we needed to and forced them into some difficult shots.”
On the other side of the bracket, Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni showed no rust after almost two days away from the Civic Centre as she picked up a 6-2 win over Mississauga’s Jacqueline Harrison.
“It’s not the easiest thing to do when you have a day off at a big event, but I was really happy with how we all played,” Tirinzoni said.
“We were patient the whole game. Whenever the other team missed their shots, we were able to take advantage of those opportunities and I think that’s what made the difference today.”
Tirinzoni’s opponent in the semifinal will be Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg, who rebounded from giving up four points in the second end to earn a 7-5 win over Caledon, Ont.’s Allison Flaxey.
“With the five-rock rule, you always have a chance to bounce back quickly, and that’s what we did,” Hasselborg said.
“After that, we played a really good game, and I hope we have our one bad end out of the way for the weekend.”
In addition to the two women’s semifinals, four men’s teams will battle it out for two spots in the semifinals at 8 p.m.
Sweden’s Niklas Edin will take on John Morris’s Vernon, B.C. rink, while Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs will do battle with St. John’s Brad Gushue.
