Jennifer Jones rink earns Olympic curling nomination
Jennifer Jones and her rink from St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg captured Olympic nomination by beating Sherry Middaugh on Saturday night.
It was a generous hometown crowd for Jones, with cheers erupting every significant throw compared to sporadic clapping for Middaugh and company.
With the hammer in the second end, Jones broke up zeroes with an excellent double take out to go up 3-0.
By the final stone of the fifth end it was 4-1. Jones was poised, eyes focused at halfway.
However, the break in fact was a good thing for Sherry Middaugh. In the sixth she managed to post a deuce and move within one.
That led to the pivotal seventh end. It became crowded in the house heading into the final stones, with each skip forced to attempt delicate shots. With two already in potential scoring position, Jennifer Jones’ hammer put her rink up 7-3 by taking Middaugh’s yellow rock right off the lid.
And that was essentially it. The 8-4 final score for Jones, along with Dawn McEwen, Jill Officer and Kaitlyn Lawes was a fitting end to a dominant week. The rink went 6-and-1 during the draws leading into Saturday night where they curled at 92% as a team.
“My team played outstanding today in the biggest game of our lives, they came out to play and that says a lot about how hard we worked and just how well we work as a team,” said Jones immediately following the final rock.
John Morris beat Kevin Martin in the men’s semi earlier to advance to the final. Morris will meet Brad Jacobs on Sunday at 3 PM ET.
Follow @CDNOlympicTeam and Olympic.ca for coverage all weekend.
