Best to turn the tables when everything is on the line.
Just one day after squandering a golden opportunity to knock the Rachel Homan rink from the ranks of the unbeaten, meeting the defending Ontario Scotties champion in the page 1-2 match-up in Kenora, the Tracy Horgan rink reversed form Sunday afternoon.
Horgan, along with older sister Jennifer Seabrook, Jenna Enge and long-time teammate Amanda Gates, will enjoy their first visit to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Red Deer, Alta. after edging Homan 7-6 in the Ontario final.
These teams proved to be the class of the field, with Homan running the table with nine straight round robin wins before facing the second-place Idylwylde Golf and Country Club contingent Saturday morning.
They initially went head-to-head on Wednesday afternoon, with Homan staying red-hot, scoring four times in the eighth end and tripling Team Horgan 9-3.
That represented the second loss of the round robin for the Sudbury crew and also their last, winning four straight games to finish at 7-2, one game ahead of both Sherri Middaugh and Krista McCarville.
Making the playoffs for a third straight year, Horgan appeared to be in great shape in the page battle, holding a 3-2 lead and the hammer heading to the eighth end.
But Homan closed out the game with consecutive steals of one in the final three ends, outscoring Horgan 5-3 and earning her berth directly to the final.
In the meantime, the local rink, who have enjoyed only limited practice time together as a team in recent months (Gates is in Toronto for studies, Enge is back in her hometown of Thunder Bay and the Horgan sisters are in town) had to find a way to regroup to face the winner of the Middaugh-McCarville match.
In a defensive battle that saw five consecutive ends blanked, Middaugh outduelled McCarville 5-1, advancing to the Sunday morning semifinal. The wealth of curling experience might have favoured Middaugh opposite the up and coming Horgan foursome, but for the second time this week, it was not apparent.
Horgan and company duplicated a 7-3 victory from draw three, winning by exactly the same score Sunday morning after jumping out, once again, to a 6-2 lead.
That left only Homan in the way of some Sudbury curling history as Horgan, Seabrook, Enge and Gates looked to become the first local rink ever to qualify for the Tournament of Hearts, emblematic of Canadian female curling supremacy.
This time around, Homan entered the break seemingly in complete control, scoring a steal of one in the fourth and fifth ends to build a 5-2 lead. Horgan countered with two with the hammer in the sixth, making things more interesting at 5-4.
An exchange of single points over the next two ends gave Homan the clear upper-hand, leading 6-5 entering the 10th and final end and holding last rock advantage to boot.
But the improbable became possible over the next 15 minutes as Horgan manufactured a steal of two, thanks to a Homan miss with her first shot of the 10th end, pulling out a 7-6 win.
While the trip to nationals represents the first for the youthful northern Ontario quartet, their experience against big time competition should not be underestimated.
Horgan broke through in winning the Ontario crown this year after falling to the McCarville Thunder Bay powerhouse in the finals in 2010 and semifinals in 2011.
And while much is being made of four-time champion Jennifer Jones returning to represent Manitoba out west, the fact remains that Team Horgan knocked off her much more well-known opponent in an extra end when the teams met earlier this season in a Grand Slam event in Calgary.
With three appearances donning northern Ontario colours at the M & M Meats Junior Curling Championships prior to her ascension to the open women's ranks, Horgan is not likely to be awestruck with what lies ahead.
Posted by Laurel Myers
