It's safe to say Kerry Galusha is no longer making up the numbers on the World Curling Tour circuit this season. She's out to win.
Galusha and her rink of Sarah Koltun, Brittany Tran and Shona Barbour were on the brink of making the playoffs at the Red Deer Curling Classic in Alberta on Sunday. All they had to do was beat Amber Holland of Alberta in their final qualification game.
Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver photo
It didn't happen and Galusha called it the toughest loss of the season for her rink to date.
Galusha fell to Holland by a score of 6-5 in one of the finals of the C qualifier of the triple-knockout bonspiel, meaning Holland moved on to the quarter-finals and play for the cash while Galusha had to rue what could have been.
Galusha said they were in the perfect position to win coming home in the eighth end but the troubles began with her first rock.
“It picked three-quarters of the way down the ice and wrecked on the guard,” she said.
That gave Holland an easy hit to sit four, still leaving Galusha with one shot to win it – a draw to the four-foot – but it came up short, giving Holland a steal of one and the win.
“When I threw it, it felt good and the girls thought it was good,” said Galusha. “I felt we controlled the game and it was back and forth all the way. I always had a shot to win it but it came up short. Just bad luck.”
It was an up-and-down weekend for Galusha, who started out in the A qualifier with a 7-4 win over Nicky Kaufman of Alberta in her first game. She dropped down to the B qualifier after a 10-7 loss to Japan's Seina Nakajima.
Things started out well in Galusha's first B qualifier game as she beat Sherry Just of Saskatchewan, 4-2, but she ended up on the wrong end of a 5-4 extra end loss to Sarah Wark of B.C., meaning it was off to the C qualifier and last chance saloon.
Galusha started out the way she had to with an 8-6 win over B.C.'s Jody Marthaller, followed by an 8-3 victory over Janais DeJong of Alberta to get to the decider against Holland. Galusha started with the hammer and scored a deuce in the opening end. Holland scored three in the second but Galusha put up another deuce in the third to take a 4-3 lead. After a blank in the fourth, Holland scored a single in the fifth, which was answered by Galusha in the sixth, which was re-answered by Holland in the seventh. Holland then stole in the eighth to end Galusha's run.
This past weekend was the last road trip for the team this season. They'll be playing in a berth spiel at the Yellowknife Curling Centre in the beginning of December, which is mandatory in order for them to be eligible for the NWT Scotties Tournament of Hearts Playdowns.
“We've played 30 games this season already and we've played some tough teams,” said Galusha. “We qualified for three playoffs, won one of those and were one shot away from the playoffs in Edmonton and Red Deer,” said Galusha. “People are noticing us again and talking about us. Northern teams don't do a lot of travel and we wanted to do something different this year and it's paid off big time.”