To say this past weekend was up-and-down for Team Galusha would be true in the sense that they were winning when they needed to and slipping up at the wrong time.
Kerry Galusha and her rink of Sarah Koltun, Shona Barbour and Jo-Ann Rizzo were back out on the road for their latest stop on the World Curling Tour circuit, that being the Canad Inns Women's Classic in Portage la Prairie, Man. Galusha and company ended up bowing out in the C event of the triple-knockout spiel, dropping an 8-4 decision to Un-Chi Gim of South Korea on Sunday morning.
photo courtesy of Team Galusha
It was actually a game in which Galusha said her rink controlled until the sixth end with the game tied at 4-4.
That's where the one bad end came into play.
“Sarah had a rock that over-curled and ticked a rock that left a centre guard,” she said. “My first rock picked and left another guard and before we knew it, we were facing three buried (in the rings).”
Galusha tried an angle-runback with her final rock of the end to spill what she could but was only able to get rid of one Gim rock, which resulted in a steal of two for Gim. Gim would go on to steal two more in the seventh to tighten the screws and then ran Galusha out of rocks in the eighth to win, 8-4.
“We played the eighth because you never know what could happen on tough ice,” said Galusha.
Galusha began the spiel with the 31 other teams in the A event and took on Theresa Cannon of Manitoba in her opening game on Oct. 17, which ended in a 7-6 defeat though Galusha did manage to fight her way back into the game after struggling in the early going.
“We struggled with the rocks on sheet one,” she said. “We tried the comeback but we left it a bit too late.”
Galusha actually stole the first point of the game in the second end but Cannon responded with three in the third. Galusha scored a single with the hammer in the fourth but Cannon put up three more in the fifth and stole another in the sixth to take a 7-2 lead. Galusha responded with three of her own with the hammer in the seventh to close the gap to 7-5.
Needing to steal two to send it into an extra end, Galusha said she had it set up but Cannon was able to get herself out of trouble, only giving up one to Galusha.
“She made her last shot by an inch,” said Galusha.
It was off to the B event for Galusha where she took on Jennifer Clarke-Rouire of Manitoba, coming out on top by a score of 5-3. Next up was Jennifer Jones of Ontario, only one of the best skips to ever play the game, but Galusha managed to stay with Jones and ended up taking her down, 5-4.
“That was a good win for us,” said Galusha. “Jennifer dominated the first four ends and we were hanging on but we came on really strong in the second part of the game.”
Galusha was down, 3-2, after four but managed to steal in the fifth and sixth to take a 4-3 lead. Jones got a single with the hammer in the seventh to tie it but Galusha had the hammer coming home and made a great shot to score her single and take the W.
“Jennifer made a great shot to come right down to the button and buried it,” said Galusha. “I needed back-eight (foot) weight and Shona had to sweep it all the way down and it tapped Jennifer's rock just enough.”
Lauren Horton of Ontario was Galusha's next opponent, which ended in a 7-4 loss for Galusha in a game which she said wasn't exactly a great one for either team.
“If you take a look at the line scores, they were so wild for all the teams,” she said. “The ice was deteriorating and it was back-and-forth but they weren't missing.”
The ladies are now on a break as a team for the next four weeks but Galusha will be in preparation mode for the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship in Saguenay, Que., which gets underway on Nov. 4. Galusha will join her brother, Jamie Koe, David Aho and Megan Koehler to represent the NWT.
“Our goal is to make the championship round,” said Galusha. “We're ranked low because of last year so we have the tougher pool but hopefully, we'll get into the championship round and then the playoffs.”