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Webster qualifies for Olympic curling trials with victory over Scott – Metro US

Webster qualifies for Olympic curling trials with victory over Scott

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. – Calgary’s Crystal Webster advanced to next month’s Olympic curling trials with a 9-7 victory over Kelly Scott of Kelowna, B.C., on Thursday.

Webster, the women’s seventh seed, is the only team to go undefeated in the pre-trials competion, earning victories over Amber Holland of Kronau, Sask., Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., and Ottawa’s Rachel Homan to reach the A final.

There, she struck quickly against the top-ranked Scott rink, scoring four with the hammer in the opening end. Scott, the 2007 world champion, responded with two in the second, and singles in the third and fourth ends to tie the game.

The teams traded deuces in the fifth and sixth ends, and single points in the seventh and eighth. After a blank in the ninth end, Webster picked Kelly’s rock out of the house in the 10th end to score the deciding two points.

Scott dropped to the B side, where she’ll face Quebec’s Marie-France Larouche in a semifinal match. Holland will face Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay, Ont., in the other semifinal, with the winners squaring off to determine the second entrant into the Olympic trials held next month in Edmonton.

Two additional teams will qualify out of the C bracket.

In men’s action Thursday, Ted Appelman of Edmonton downed Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., 7-6, Jason Gunnlaugson of Beausejour, Man., beat Joel Jordison of Moose Jaw, Sask., 5-4, and Winnipeg’s Kerry Burtnyk upended Greg McAulay of Richmond, B.C., 6-5.

Jordison and McAulay were eliminated with the losses.