Kendra Lilly starts Northern Ontario Scotties on winning note

It’s starting to look like a three-skip race at the first ever Northern Ontario women’s curling play-downs.

After Day 1 of the historic event, North Bay’s Laura Payne leads the pack with a 2-0 record. Sudbury’s Tracy Horgan and Thunder Bay’s Kendra Lilly are also undefeated, each winning their only match of the day.

Lilly, who scored a rare five-ender in the fourth to defeat fellow Thunder Bay skip Liane Fossum 7-5 in Thursday’s afternoon draw, said it’s a special feeling to be participating in the inaugural Northern Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

“I know all of us here are very excited. We’re all Northern strong and North rises. Anytime we went to the Ontario Scotties we sort of all stuck together and everything like that, so it’s nice to have our own and I think it’s very important, a very big event,” said Lilly, whose team includes lead Tirzah Keffer, second Oye-Sem Won Briand and third Sarah Potts. 

Of course, getting that first win out of the way so quickly doesn’t hurt in a five-team event, which only advances two teams to the final and a berth in a nationals pre-qualifier alongside the Northwest Territories and Yukon, one team moving on to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

“We had the first-round bye so Liane Fossum had a little bit more experience on the ice than we did, obviously. But it was nice to just get out there, play our own game and just play like we can. We were confident,” said Lilly, who made two recent trips to the Ontario Scotties playing on other teams.

It just wasn’t Fossum’s day.

She fell 7-6 to Payne in an extra end in the morning draw, and said she and her teammates – lead Victoria Anderson, second Kim Zsakai and third Megan St. Amand – just couldn’t find their rhythm.

“Unfortunately the pebble broke down on us and we weren’t able to make the shots based on that,” Fossum said, who hasn’t given up hope despite the 0-2 start.

“We’ll hope for a tiebreaker and go from there,” she said.

Horgan, the pre-tournament favourite, brings plenty of experience to the Fort William Curling Club event. She represented Ontario at the 2012 Tournament of Hearts and competed at the 2013 Olympic pre-trials.

Like Lilly (1-0), she’s excited at the new format.

“I think it’s an exciting thing for curling in Northern Ontario to have a team at the Scotties now. It’s a good change. The whole relegation process is a little scary, a little unfortunate, but I think it’s great that Northern Ontario has a chance to make their way to the Scotties."

It was a slow start for Horgan (1-0) on Day 1, but she rallied late to earn a 7-5 win over Thunder Bay’s Jessica Williams (0-2), scoring two in the eighth and then stealing three in the ninth for the win. Horgan’s team had the bye in Thursday’s afternoon draw.

“It took us a little bit of time to get onto the line out there and the other team was making a lot of shots. It was a close game, but that’s good.”

Williams (0-2) dropped a 7-4 decision to Payne in her second match, a costly three-ender in the seventh the key to the North Bay skip’s win.

Williams and Lilly will tangle in Friday’s third draw, with Horgan taking on Payne in a battle of undefeated skips.

Curling starts at noon.