Scheidegger to face Rocque in Scotties semifinals

By Dale Woodard on January 8, 2022.

The Casey Scheidegger rink was handed their first loss of the week at the Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts, but they’ll get another shot at that same team in the playoff round today.

Wrapping up the round-robin portion while looking to go undefeated and lock up first place and a bye to the final Sunday, Scheidegger and her rink of Cary-Anne McTaggart, second Jessie Haughian and lead Kristie Moore were downed 7-6 by Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque Friday afternoon in Grande Prairie for their first loss of the week that put the Lethbridge Curling Club quartet into a tie with Rocque and defending champion Laura Walker of Edmonton at 6-1.

The loss proved costly for Scheidegger as Walker – whose team includes Lethbridge product Taylor McDonald at second – advances to the championship final Sunday after the tiebreaker procedures were carried out, while Scheidegger and Rocque hit the ice again in the semifinal today at 2:30 p.m.

On Friday, Scheidegger led 6-4 coming home, but when Scheidegger’s attempted freeze on her last shot hit and rolled, Rocque was able to remove the stone on her final shot to count for three and post the win.

Scheidegger had put up a three-ender of her own in the seventh end to take a 5-3 lead.

In the same draw, Walker defeated fellow Edmonton rink Selena Sturmay to wrap up their round-robin at 6-1 and earn the berth in Sunday’s final.

Today’s semifinal between Scheidegger and Rocque will be broadcast on SportsNet.

The championship final is slated for 11 a.m. Sunday.

On the men’s side, the four playoff spots are clinched.

After Calgary’s Kevin Koe clinched the first spot Thursday with a win over Edmonton’s Karsten Sturmay, Jeremy Harty of Calgary grabbed the second spot with a 9-3 win over Sturmay in the B-side final Friday morning.

The final two C-event spots were claimed Friday night.

Sturmay managed to clinch a spot in the weekend on his third try thanks to an 8-5 win over Edmonton’s Ryan Jacques.

In the other C-final, Ted Appelman of Edmonton downed Sexsmith’s Scott Webb 9-3.

The men’s semifinals go tonight at 8 p.m. with Sunday’s championship taking the ice at 4:30 p.m.

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