CALGARY, Alta. — Newfoundland and Labrador’s Sarah Hill team dropped a 9-4 decision to Quebec’s Cynthia St-Georges Wednesday to fall further off the pace at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national women's curling championship in Calgary.
The loss leaves Hill, Beth Hamilton, Lauren Barron and Adrienne Mercer from the Re-Max Centre/St. John’s Curling Club with a 2-4 record and near the bottom of Pool B standings, but still with a chance of advancing to the next stage of the competition, the championship round.
Newfoundland and Labrador is one of nine teams in Pool B. The top four teams from each of the event's two pools advance to the next round, and Hill benefits from the fact that every team in Pool B has at least two losses. It means that with wins in its final two preliminary-round games and some other results falling its way, N.L. would have a shot at a tie-breaker game.
Hill closes out the round-robin schedule against the Wild Card I entry (4-3) at noon (NT) today, followed by a 10 p.m. game against Saskatchewan (4-2).
Quebec (5-2) tops the pool standings. On Wednesday, St-Georges scored three points in each of the second and fourth ends for a 6-1 lead, from which Hill could not recover.
Hill opened its Scotties schedule with wins over New Brunswick (8-7 score) and Nunavut (9-3).
Since then, the team has lost 12-8 to P.E.I., 6-5 to Manitoba, 10-1 to B.C. and Quebec.
The loss to Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones Wednesday places Hill in the history book. The win was the 153rd of Jones’s Hall of Fame career, breaking the Scotties career wins record.
Hill probably doesn’t mind, as she grew up a Jones fan.
“Oh, she’s been my No. 1 for years,” Hill told The Telegram prior to the tournament. “Any time she’s on TV, I have to watch. I can’t miss a game.”
