McCarville defeated

Krista McCarville kept fighting back, but playing from behind for most of her match was just a little too much to overcome on Day 3 Monday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Saskatchewan’s Amber Holland, up 5-1 at one point, scored a single in the 10th end to finish McCarville’s remarkable 14-game winning streak, handing the Thunder Bay skip her first loss at the national women’s curling championship.

"That was just weird," said Holland, who evened her record at 2-2. "We just didn’t execute well in the second half of the game when you need to and we let them get back in it.

"Krista is very scrappy. She knows rock positioning, and where to put them. They play those shots really well."

She added she expected a difficult match, given McCarville’s success of late.

"I knew it was going to be a tough one, maybe just not that tough after we had the (four-) point lead," Holland said.

Holland scored one in the first and stole one in the second before McCarville (3-1) could get going in the match, picking up her first point in the third.

It got ugly in a hurry from there.

Holland nabbed two more in the fourth and stole one in the fifth to go up by four, but McCarville and her teammates – lead Kari MacLean, second Ashley Miharija and third Tara George – refused to lay down their brooms.

The Thunder Bay foursome scored one in the sixth and trailed by three heading into the final four ends. Facing three McCarville stones in scoring position in the seventh, Holland was unable to execute a difficult draw, giving up a steal of three and the match was tied 5-5.

The teams traded points in the eighth and ninth, giving Holland the hammer heading home.

McCarville made a near-impossible shot to get the point in the ninth, making a nose hit on a Saskatchewan guard and sending it careening into a mess of red and yellow stones surrounding the button, pushing her stone into scoring position by a matter of inches.

It’s the last thing she’s thinking about now.

"We’re not happy. We don’t have a ‘W.’ But we’re happy that we picked it up in the last five ends and became the team that we know. So we’re happy with that," McCarville said.

In the 10th, McCarville simply couldn’t get her rocks under enough cover, and Holland made a double-raise takeout to score one and get the win.

Things don’t get any easier for the Fort William Club rink. On Monday night they face a tough B.C. squad skipped by two-time Scotties champion Kelly Scott, a team that McCarville and company defeated at the pre-Olympic qualifier in Kelowna and then once again at the Roar of the Rings in Edmonton by a 9-5 count.

In other action Monday morning, Quebec’s Eve Belisle (2-2) dumped Newfoundland’s Shelley Nichols (1-3) by a 9-3 count.