Whitehorse’s Team Koltun isn’t getting shut-out on the Women’s World Curling Tour, but they would certainly like to see more checks in their win column.
In the rink’s third world-tour event of the season, Team Koltun produced one win, but was knocked out with three losses at the Boundary Ford Curling Classic in Lloydminster, Alta., over the weekend.
It was the team’s second-straight world-tour event going 1-3, matching their win-loss record from the Vancouver Island Shootout in the middle of November.
“The bonspiel itself was pretty good,” said skip Sarah Koltun. “We felt like we played better than we did in Victoria, but we felt that there was room for improvement.
“In that last game we had a couple of bad ends and unfortunately one of our bad ends was the last end.”
“Overall, we felt better than we did about the spiel in Victoria.”
Team Koltun, which includes third Chelsea Duncan, second Patty Wallingham and lead Jenna Duncan, opened the bonspiel with a 9-4 loss to Alberta’s Amy Nixon, who made it to the quarterfinal. They then lost 10-3 to Saskatchewan’s Chantelle Eberle.
Team Koltun then staved off elimination with a 8-3 win over Alberta’s Ashlee Foster. The Whitehorse rink scored two in the third and one in the fourth to take a 3-1 lead before scoring two more in the eighth end to finish the match.
Alberta’s Heather Jensen dealt the final blow to Koltun. In their final and closest game, Koltun was eliminated with a 7-6 loss. After scoreless eighth and ninth ends, Jensen scored one in the 10th end for the win.
“We were having a little bit of trouble with our weight control - all four of us - so we definitely felt we could have played that (last) end better,” said Koltun. “We have the skill and ability, we just did not play that end as good as we know we could have.
“We didn’t have it set up for a steal at all by the end.”
The last two world-tour events are extra disappointing when compared to the team’s first-ever Women’s World Curling Tour event in October.
Team Koltun won bronze at the Valley First Crown of Curling in Kamloops, B.C. In the semifinal, Koltun lost 8-2 to China’s Wang Bingyu, who went on the win the bonspiel. Bingyu won gold, silver and bronze at the world championships between 2008 and 2011, and captured bronze at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Team Koltun went 5-2 in Kamloops and pocketed a cheque for $4,500.
Koltun and her teammates will be competing in the playdown for the Yukon’s one female spot at the Canadian Junior Curling Championship Dec. 21-23 at the Whitehorse Curling Club.
This season’s junior nationals will take place Jan. 31 to Feb. 10 in Fort McMurray, Alta.
Sarah Koltun has competed as a skip a record six times at the Canadian Junior Curling Championships and has represented the Yukon at two Canada Winter Games. She has also curled at three Arctic Winter Games, accumulating two silver and a gold.
While Wallingham and Jenna are in Whitehorse, Koltun is studying at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C. and Chelsea is at University of Alberta in Edmonton.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com