The safer shot didn’t interest Nadine Chyz.
“We knew we had maybe a hard out-turn draw for one to force an extra end, but we had an angle for the win so we thought we might as well go for it,” said the Calgary skip, after making a long angle-raise takeout for three with her final stone and a 7-5 win over Chelsea Carey in a B-event qualifier of the Red Deer Curling Classic Sunday night at the Pidherney Centre.
It was a satisfying win for Chyz, who led 4-1 after four ends, then gave up a single in the fifth and steals of two and one in the next two ends for a 5-4 deficit heading into the eighth and final end.
“We had a really strong start, things were going in our favour,” said the winning skip. “The last couple ends (before the eighth) were not the best, but we just had to keep looking at the scoreboard and realize we still had a chance. We couldn’t let the couple of steals get to us.”
The Chyz foursome, already guaranteed of a cheque after qualifying for today’s 9 a.m. quarter-finals, came into the Classic with 2015 earnings of $2,050, their take from three earlier ‘spiels.
“We competed in Vernon, Edmonton and in the Autumn Gold in Calgary,” said Chyz. “We want to make sure we can play these top teams like Carey. This was a really good test of ourselves as a team.
“This win feels good. They’ve kind of had our names so it’s nice to get this win under our belts.”
The current Chyz foursome, consisting also of third Heather Jensen, second Whitney Eckstrand, a Red Deer native, and lead Heather Rogers, has been together since last season.
“We’re still going through some learning curves but we feel a lot more solid as a unit having that extra year together,” said Chyz.
“We’ve had a good weekend together and we’re learning as we go along. We just feel really good about qualifying here.”
Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge earned the other B-event win into the quarter-finals by blasting Satsuki Fujisawa of Japan 7-0 in four ends.
Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton and Alina Paetz of Switzerland took top honours in the A event Saturday, with Rocque downing Scheidegger 6-5 and Paetz nipping Carey’s Calgary rink, featuring Jocelyn Peterman of Red Deer, 5-4.
The four C-event qualifiers were decided in Sunday’s late draw, as Kalynn Park of Lethbridge beat Dianne Gushulak of New Westminster 5-2, Sijia Liu of Harbin, China, defeated Shannon Kleibrink of Calgary 6-4, Jie Mei of China downed Fujisawa 6-3 and Carey upended Jessie Kaufman of Edmonton 5-2.
In the men’s division, Mick Lizmore of Edmonton and Jason Ackerman of Regina advanced out of the A event with 4-2 and 6-5 wins over Wade White of Edmonton and Sean Geall of New Westminster.
In the Sunday afternoon B finals, defending champion Josh Heidt of Kerrobert, Sask., got past Jeremy Harty of Calgary 6-5 and the Korean rink skipped by Soo Hyuk Kim downed White 5-4.
Qualifying out of the C event Sunday night were White, Bruce Korte of Saskatoon, Charley Thomas of Calgary and Dean Joanisse of New Westminster. White blanked Thomas Scofflin of Edmonton 7-0, Korte doubled Harty 6-3, Thomas beat Randy Ferbey 6-4 and Joanisse was an 8-6 winner over Aaron Sluchinski of Airdrie.
The semifinals in both divisions are set for 12:30 p.m. today, followed by the championship finals at 3:30 p.m.
Sunday’s scores:
Men
B event, 9 a.m. — Jeremy Harty 5 Aaron Sluchinski 1; Wade Wgite 7 Grant Dezura 2; Soo Hyuk Kim 7 Ryan Deis 1; Josh Heidt 5 Sean Geall 1.
C event, 9 a.m. — Bruce Korte 8 Craig MacAlpine 2; Warren Cross 6 Brock Virtue 2.
C event, 12:30 p.m. — Shaun Meachem 7 Jamie Koe 4; Charley Thomas 5 Dezura 3; Korte 6 Cross 4; Thomas Scoffin 6 Jason Jacobson 2; Jeff Erickson 4 Se Yheon Seong 2; Randy Ferbey 8 Brady Clark 5.
B event, 4 p.m. — Heidt 6 Harty 5; Kim 5 White 4.
C event, 4 p.m. — Scoffin 8 Erickson 0; Dean Joanisse 7 Geall 2; Sluchinski 7 Meachem 4; Ferbey 7 Deis 6.
Women
B event, 9 a.m. — Satsuki Fujisawa 7 Jessie Kaufman 0; Chelsea Carey 5 Shannon Kleibrink 2; Nadine Chyz 4 Robyn Silvernagle 2; Casey Scheidegger 7 Nick Kaufman 4.
B event, 4 p.m. — Scheidegger 7 Fujisawa 0; Chyz 7 Carey 5.
C event, 9 a.m. — Lindsay Makichuk 7 Brett Barber 6.
C event, 12:30 p.m. — Diane Guslulak 8 Kaufman 3; Kaylnn Park 8 Lana Vey 5; Jie Mei 6 Jodi Marthaller 5.
C event, 4 p.m. — Kleibrink 7 Taryn Schachtel 4; Kaufman 10 Makichuk 4; Sisia Liu 6 Silvernagle 5.