NIPIGON -- Hailey Beaudry’s been giving her much more seasoned opponents early fits at the Northern Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The Lakehead University skip took a 5-2 lead on 2015 champion Tracy Fleury on Wednesday night before falling 14-5. A day later she opened with three in the first to take the early lead on five-time champion Krista McCarville.
Unfortunately it was all she could muster.
McCarville stormed back with four in the second end and stole points in four straight ends, going on to win her Draw 2 match 10-3.
Despite dropping their first two games, the team of Beaudry, lead Erin Tomalty, second Emily Cooney and third Kendra Lemieux happy with the way they’ve performed together at the Nipigon Curling Club, gaining valuable experience for the Canadian University Championships, being hosted in March by Lakehead.
“It’s really good that we’re able to have strong starts. We just have to keep working at it. These are some of the greatest teams out there right now. They’re hard to play,” Beaudry said.
“It’s definitely nerve-wracking. Me personally, and the rest of them too, we look up to them a lot. Being able to go out there and play against them is a dream come true.”
McCarville showed her experience in a hurry, after the disappointing start.
Lying three, she made a perfect draw with her final shot of the second end to score four and take the lead for good.
“We knew we could battle back. We had to just get our rocks in better spots and just battle on from there,” said McCarville, whose foursome includes Sarah Potts, Ashley Sippala and Kendra Lilly.
“They’re a good team. They’ve been practicing really hard. We’ve seen them around the club and they’re working at it and getting geared up for their play-downs too. We knew they were going to be a pretty good team.”
Both McCarville and Fleury will enter their first of two showdowns on Thursday night with perfect 2-0 records. Mikkelson and Beaudry are winless at 0-2.
Fleury, from Sudbury, made relatively easy work of Thunder Bay’s Larissa Mikkelson, scoring twice in the opening end and stealing two more in the second en route to a 9-2.
“We’re feeling good and feeling like we’ve got a bit of momentum,” Fleury said. “We’re really liking the ice out there, so that helps.”
The double round-robin format means each team plays the other three teams twice, with the top two teams advancing to Saturday night’s final.
Fleury, lead Amanda Gates, second Jenna Walsh and third Jennifer Wylie would like to set the tone early against McCarville, who beat them three straight times at last year’s Northern Ontario women’s curling championship.
“They’re a great team, so we definitely need to bring our A game to keep it close. We’ll do our best,” Fleury said.
