STRAUSS CANADA CUP OF CURLING 2008 CHAMPIONS!
Interior Savings Centre, Kamloops, B.C
Lawton takes Strauss Canada Cup
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Source: Canadian Curling Association
KAMLOOPS, March 2…Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon took a step towards her goal of representing Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics by defeating 2007 world champion Kelly Scott of Kelowna, 7-4, Sunday in the women’s final of the Strauss Canada Cup at the Interior Savings Centre.
The victory meant that her team of third (and sister) Marliese Kasner, second Sherri Singler and lead Lana Vey has now qualified for the pool of 16 women’s teams which will be eligible for the 2009 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials, at a site and date to be announced. The Trials will determine who will represent the host nation in the curling competition in Vancouver.
Four of the 16 teams will earn berths directly into the Trials, while the other 12 will play off a month before for the other four spots.
Lawton, who had finished the round robin in first place in Section B with a 4-1 mark, never trailed in the final and was full value for the win, her second victory over Scott this week, after beating her 5-3 on Thursday.
Lawton opened a little daylight by the fifth end break, up 3-1 after a steal of one in the fifth. Then, after the teams traded singles, Lawton was the recipient of a killer three in the eighth end via another steal, when Scott was light and tight with her last rock and wrecked on a guard.
That made it 7-2, and although Scott came back with a deuce in the ninth, Lawton ran her out of rocks for the win.
In addition to the Trials pool entry, the Lawton squad also earned $25,000 ($28,200 in total, counting $800 for each round robin win), received a berth into the 2008 Continental Cup in Camrose, Alberta, December 18-21 as members of Team North America and will return as the defending Canada Cup champion when the event moves to Yorkton, Saskatchewan next year, March 18-22.
“It’s a relief to get that (one of 16 Trials-eligible teams) and it feels really good,” said Lawton. “We had a tight game going on, exchanging singles. The first steal we had definitely gave us a little momentum. We used that. We just wanted to make sure we kept playing hard and kept the pressure on them. The ice may have been a little straighter than it has been but the girls just curled great.”
If Scott had won today, her team would have earned a berth directly into the Trials, since she’d won last year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the world women’s. Only Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg has qualified directly so far, after wins in last year’s Strauss Canada Cup, Players Championship and this year’s Scotties.
But it was not to be, as Lawton put the pressure on from the opening stone.
“There was a lot riding on this game,” said Scott, who is pregnant with her first child, due in July. “Certainly it would have been so nice to lock it up here, but for some reason it wasn’t in our plans. We’ll just keep working for it — it’ll come.”
On the Canada Cup going to Yorkton next year, Lawton added, “It’s really exciting. I think it will be great. We have lots of fans in Saskatchewan. But Kamloops has been a great facility and we love it here, too.”
Lawton finished third at the 2005 Trials in Halifax, losing the semi-final to eventual winner Shannon Kleibrink. “We played very strong, but the Kleibrink team played stronger than us. It’s something we know, that if we can bring our A game, we can build on that."
Lawton’s team will next compete in the Players Championship in April in St. John’s. A win there would give her a second leg to the Trials, with another season ahead to try to earn a third victory in a qualifying event and thus a direct berth into the Trials.
New to the team this year is lead Lana Vey, who last year teamed with Saskatchewan skip Jan Betker, as third, to finish the runner-up at the Scotties. ‘She’s been a great addition. She’s awesome," said Lawton.
The 27-year-old Lawton, who fired 91% to Scott’s 72%, won the 2000 Canadian Juniors and was runner-up at the world juniors, while Kasner not only was a member of that team as third, but came back three years later as skip to win the 2003 Canadian and world juniors titles.