The Senior Girls Curling team from Ernie Studer School in Loon Lake won a bronze medal in provincial competition at the Callie Curling Club in Regina March 11 and 12. "They had a rough start," said principal Brad Freyman. "They lost their first two games on the Friday evening and dropped to the C-event. It was a triple knockout tournament, so they couldn't afford another loss."
The young team, composed of skip Alison Ingram, Grade 10, third Chennoa Tracey, Grade 11, second Natasha Hirshfeld, Grade 10 and lead Jaida Freyman, Grade 9, opened with an 8-1 loss against the eventual gold medal team from Watrous. Dropping to the B-event they then lost a squeaker to Tisdale. Although they were up by two coming home, Tisdale managed a draw for three and the win.
"The girls handled the losses well," said Freyman, "and started the Saturday games in a relaxed frame of mind."
Saturday would turn out to be a marathon.
Backs to the wall they started the day against Langham, the team that they had finished second to at regionals. "We like to steal, and we stole five against them," said Alison.
After the 9-2 win, they met Campbell Collegiate from Regina. Tied 3-3 after six ends, the teams traded points in the seventh and eighth ends to force an extra end. Laying one on the four foot, Alison put up a nice guard on her first rock. Campbell missed their draw and it was all over, 5-4, and the girls were into the semi-final against A-side winner Watrous.
"It was 3-2 for Watrous after five. We were pushing them hard, but they stole two in the sixth end, which made it 5-2," said Alison.
"What was going through your heads then girls?" I asked.
"We were thinking we'd better start making some shots," Chennoa laconically answered.
This remark is indicative of a very healthy attitude towards sports - one shared by great winning teams. As coach Dexter Slugoski said: "They're a good team: every one of them takes everything they're involved in very seriously and brings their best efforts forth. At the same time they're quite open-minded, and very capable of putting things into perspective."
The girls took one in the seventh. "We should have blanked the end, but we hit and rolled in," said Alison, "and in the eighth they just ran us out of rocks."
