Jones sweeps aside McCarville, sets up all-Manitoba Olympic trials final

The pressure was on Krista McCarville from the beginning of the 2021 Tim Hortons Curling Trials women’s semifinal Saturday night.

Playing against six-time Scotties champion Jennifer Jones, McCarville was constantly pressured into difficult shots time and time again.

“The only thing I could think of was that we didn’t catch on to the ice tonight,” McCarville said after the game. “It was a little bit different than this afternoon’s game. They caught on to it a lot faster than we did and we struggled with the ice.”

Jones, the 2014 women’s curling gold medal winner in Sochi, played on the offensive after a blank end in the second end, putting plenty of rocks in play as the winning recipe for a hopeful return to the Olympics.

“Four years ago if you could say you could be in the Olympic trials curling final, you’d sign up in a heartbeat. We were lucky enough to have the opportunity once. To do it again would be incredible,” Jones said.

Now, Jones is heading back to the women’s curling trials final, a title she won in 2013. But this time she has to face the no.1 ranked Tracy Fleury, who’s only lost five times this season.

So what does she have to do to to get the better of her provincial rival?

“Make all of our shots,” Jones said, jokingly.

“I expect it to be a very good game. At the end of the day it’s going to come down to the last rock.”

Provincial pride is on the line as Jones, curling out of the St. Vital Curling Club in Winnipeg, Man., will go up against Fleury’s rink, curling out of East St. Paul Curling Club in East St. Paul, Man.

McCarville’s curling trials journey ended after an unsuspecting playoff qualification when she finished the round-robin 4-4, tied with Kerri Einarson and Casey Scheidegger, two teams she outlasted enroute to the semifinal.

“We really persevered after thinking that we were possibly out of it, to coming back and battling this afternoon,” she said of the team’s effort.

“Playing on the arena ice is something we want to do a little bit more of, so getting those few extra games is what we need.”

McCarville managed to win plenty of the SaskTel Centre fans during the course of her nine-day stay in the Bridge City.

A post of hers on Twitter earlier in the week went viral among curling fans, and may have boosted the roaring applause she received.

You know you had a bad night when you get home to watch the end of the broadcast that you were the feature game in 😂

No giving up here. We’ll be better tomorrow— next game is Tuesday at 8pm EST. pic.twitter.com/G9q7no8psZ

— Team McCarville (@TeamMcCarville) November 23, 2021

“It’s really nice to see because we aren’t really on the circuit, so we’re not known as much. It’s obvious that we might not have as many fans, but it is nice to see we have fans out there and they’re cheering us on,” she said.

A blank in the second end was sandwiched between a single from Jones and McCarville to have the game tied at one after three ends.

Jones missed an opportunity to score two, but settled for the single to hold a narrow lead heading into the fifth end.  Jones settles for one. 2-1 after four ends.

McCarville kept the game close when she threw a dart down the middle of the ice for a double takeout and score two for the 4-3 score after six ends.

Jones scored another double to get the score to 6-3 after eight ends and then took advantage of a missed angle raise takeout for two in the ninth end to take the 8-3 final score win.