Alberta 10 P.E.I. 5
Heather Nedohin wasn’t in a good mood when she left the Centrium Monday evening.
Less than 24 hours later, she couldn’t have been happier.
Nedohin was able to shake off a poor performance in an 8-5 loss to Rebecca Atkinson of New Brunswick Monday evening and come back with a pair of wins Tuesday.
“We’re calling it turnaround Tuesday,” she said after a 10-5 win over Kim Dolan of Prince Edward Island in the evening draw. Earlier in the day the Alberta crew downed Kelly Scott of B.C. 7-4 and find themselves in a four-way tie for third place at 4-3.
“We felt good, it was a solid team effort,” said Nedohin. “I thought we played consistently throughout and it was important to get the wins.”
Nedohin didn’t feel he team changed much from earlier in the week, but things were going their way.
“Honestly, we played the same. I’m not a person of stats, but the three girls in front of me are doing so well. We haven’t changed much, but we did get a couple of breaks as the other skips made a couple of mistakes they weren’t making before.”
Nedohin was a lot sharper Tuesday, making key shots when called upon.
“I was disappointed with my play in the second game yesterday. And like I said, I’m pleased with the girls ahead of me and if I can bring my game up to theirs, it will be a good thing.”
Team Alberta is second in the team stats, behind Jennifer Jones of Manitoba.
“I didn’t know that until someone mentioned it, but once again the girls in front of me are playing so well”
Nedohin jumped into the 2-0 and 3-1 leads against Scott and never trailed. They had more of a battle against Dolan. They did lead 4-1 after three ends only to see Dolan count three in the fourth. However, after blanking two ends, Nedohin laid a deuce, gave up one in the seventh and put the game away with four in the ninth.
“We’re hitting our stride and seemed to have a good tempo heading into mid-week.”
Nedohin does have a tough test this morning as she faces Michelle Englot of Saskatchewan. She takes on Marie-France Larouche of Quebec in the afternoon.
Larouche pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the week so far when she stole one in the tenth and three in the 11th to down Amber Holland and her Team Canada rink 8-5 in the evening draw.
Holland can only blame herself as she missed a double in the 10th and then came up well short of an open draw in the 11th.
“We had control until the last few ends and a few missed shots there and I had an opportunity for the win and just didn’t make it,” said Holland, who isn’t about to lose a lot of sleep over the loss.
“I made a lot of great shots that game and I’ll concentrate on those.”
Larouche admitted she didn’t expect Holland to miss her final draw.
“Honestly no, she just made the draw on her previous shot. This is our biggest win of the tournament so far.”
It was the second win of the day for Larouche, who beat Kerry Galusha and the Northwest Territories 7-5 in the morning draw.
It left her with a 4-3 record while Team Canada dropped to 4-2 and in a ti with Scott, who downed Heather Strong of Newfoundland/Labrador 11-7 after counting four on the ninth.
It was an outstanding effort for Scott, whose rink has bene battling the flu. In fact third Sasha Carter is still not 100 percent.
“Under the circumstances it was a great performance,” said Scott. “We were able to do what we needed to do and Sasha did a phenomenal job. I was touch and go for her in the first five ends, then she was lights out.”
Carter shot a respectable 76 per cent.
“We’ll certainly take the win considering what has bene going on (with the ‘flu). The thing is we’re a scrappy team and we find a way.”
Scott did have her hands full with Strong, who led 3-0 aftet the fist end and 6-5 after five.
“We knew they’d be tough. The thing is we can’t take anyone for granted. We can’t take a game off.”
The other evening game aw Tracy Horgan of Ontario up their record to 3-4 with a 12-2 win over Galusha, who was back at the hotel with the flu.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com