After some early struggles on Thursday morning, Michelle Englot was able to turn things around when it mattered most.
The Regina skip, who now curls out of Winnipeg, stole a point in the eighth end on her way to a 6-5 win over Brianne Meilleur at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Meridian Canadian Open at the North Battleford Civic Centre.
“We were struggling with our draw weight a little bit but we started to pick things up towards the end of the game,” Englot said. “That’s something we’ll need to get better at as we go forward.
“I felt like we played a really solid last two ends, and that was more like how we played yesterday.”
With the win, Englot has earned as spot in one of two ‘A’ women’s finals on Thursday, where she we will go up against Silvana Tirinzoni.
Englot, who has represented Saskatchewan on seven occasions at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, is now teamed up with third Kate Cameron, second Leslie-Wilson Westcott and lead Raunora Westcott after their previous skip Kristy McDonald stepped back from the game.
“It took us a little while to get used to one another but we’ve really come together over the last couple of months,” Englot said.
“Making it to the finals at the Tour Challenge a couple of months ago was really the turning point for us. It gave us that extra bit of confidence to know that we can play with the very best teams.”
Val Sweeting also had a nice comeback victory in her ‘A’ semifinal contest, as she defeated Bingyu Wang 6-5 in an extra-end.
“It was a real battle out there,” Sweeting said. “The ice was a little bit different than it was yesterday, and we didn’t quite pick up on that quite as early as we would’ve liked, but the girls did a great job of adapting to the changes.”
After scoring two points in the eighth end to tie the game up, Sweeting had a bit of luck on her side as she stole a point in the extra frame.
“I was a little bit short on my first guard attempt and that left her a double,” Sweeting said. “It couldn’t have worked out worse for her, as our rock stuck around on the back button, so we got a bit of a lucky break there.
“She had a really tough draw on her last shot, but she was really close and I thought that she had it made as it was coming down the ice.”
Sweeting will now face Jacqueline Harrison in a women’s ‘A’ final contest later today for a berth into the playoffs.
Harrison also had a big win Thursday morning as she came out on top in a 6-4 battle with Kelsey Rocque.
“We took a few more risks with the hammer in this game,” Harrison said.
“For the most part, however, we tried to stick with what we did yesterday. We stuck to our game plan and we tried to make their shots as difficult as possible.”
In women’s ‘B’ event action Thursday morning, Jennifer Jones defeated Chelsea Carey 8-3 and Anna Hasselborg had a 7-5 win over Anna Sidorova.
With the losses, both Carey and Sidorova are now in the ‘C’ event and will need to win out in order to make the playoffs.
Action will resume at 11:30 a.m. and will feature two men’s ‘A’ event finals, as Brad Jacobs takes on Kevin Koe and Niklas Edin will go up against John Shuster.
Meanwhile, John Morris will face Heath McCormick while Bruce Korte will match up with Charley Thomas in a pair of ‘B’ event contests.
The lone women’s game will see Rachel Homan taking on Casey Scheidegger in the ‘B’ bracket.
