Shooting towards the glass late on Friday, Feb. 15 in the sixth end against Notre Dame, Innisfail skip Courtney Rieberger launched a curling rock coming home with Sam Carr calling the line and Cassandra Livingstone and Jade Marshall sweeping.
She made the brilliant shot – a cross-house double to add two points to the Innisfail senior girls curling team's score.
The move led to a win in the game and pushed the Innisfail team towards a bronze medal over the weekend in Central Alberta School Athletics Association zone championships in Lacombe.
“The rock had to come through a small port just perfectly,” said coach Chris Radomske.
Livingstone, lead, Marshall, second, and Carr, third, had beaten Pigeon Lake but lost to Hay Lakes in the second match.
“They had played this team last year and possibly thought they couldn't beat this team,” said teacher-supervisor Coralie Mobley. “They went to provincials last year and they're going again this year.”
Innisfail had gotten behind on the scoreboard but was making a comeback.
“We were clawing our way back but ran out of ends,” she said. “You see some teams get down and we don't. They're steady and they keep plugging away. They never gave up.”
The next morning the team beat Pigeon Lake again and had to steal at the end of the game to tie with Chauvin.
Radomske said the girls put in a great effort to wind up with the bronze.
“They curled well, just not well enough to go on,” he said. “Their sights were set on provincials.”
The senior curlers are top-notch athletes she stressed.
“A nose hit isn't good enough anymore,” she said, noting the Innisfail team not only went for doubles but also made a few attempts at angle runbacks.
Because the teams don't play in a league together like other high school sports, it was hard to know what to expect at the tournament, Mobley said.
“It's always unpredictable what the competition will be like,” she said. “Curling is very finicky. One day a team has it and one day they don't.”
The medal for Innisfail was anything but a foregone conclusion particularly since the team's regular lead Christen Cooper hurt her knee and was advised not to play.
“She's played with them for two years,” she said. “The doctor didn't want her to play.”
Though the girls may not have achieved the result they had hoped for, there were other positives. For one, the girls were even scouted by a University of Alberta coach.
“We were in the hunt,” Mobley said. “Some games went our way and some games didn't.”
