Kendra Lilly knocks off North Bay's Laura Payne to earn berth in Northern Scotties final

Kendra Lilly gets a second crack at Tracy Horgan.

This time a spot in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts pre-qualifier is on the line.

Lilly hit and stuck her final stone in the 10th end on Saturday afternoon, scoring an 8-7 win over North Bay’s Laura Payne, earning her a berth in the Northern Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts final.

Lilly led 6-3 through six ends, but gave up a deuce in the seventh and a steal of two more in the ninth, Payne tying the score 7-7 coming home.

“I was a little bit nervous, but I had thrown that shot a couple of times in the game so we knew it well,” the Thunder Bay skip said.

“We knew it curled up there, so we knew the ice and I was confident. I wouldn’t mind an open hit for the win, so I’ll take it.”

After falling 5-4 to Horgan in the round-robin on Friday, Lilly said she and her teammates – lead Tirzah Keffer, second Oye-Sem Won Briand and third Sarah Potts – are looking for a little redemption.

Knowing she’s a win away from grabbing the first ever Northern Ontario women’s curling crown feels pretty fantastic too, she added.

“Losing to Horgan in the round robin was tough, because we felt it was our game, but we parked that and we knew we had to come out hard for this game. So we’re ready for Round 2 and this is where we wanted to be. We wanted to be in the final.”

Horgan completed a perfect round robin on Saturday, scoring one in the 10th to knock off Thunder Bay’s Liane Fossum 8-7, finishing 4-0.
The Sudbury skip had already clinched a spot in the final, slated for 8 p.m. Saturday at the Fort William Curling Club.

Lilly said she’s hoping she learned a valuable lesson in that loss and plans to take a slightly different strategy into the championship game.

“I think we just have to keep (going) hard. I don’t know if we consciously let up in that game, but we definitely let them in the game. They played us stronger the last half than we did, so I think we’re just going to play our game the whole way through and make sure we come home with hammer again,” Lilly said.

“Hopefully I’ll make my last shot for the win there too.”

Fossum finished the three-day event winless at 0-4, fifth in the five-team field. Payne wrapped up round-robin play at 2-2.