Nancy McConnery pulled off an upset to win the Nova Scotia Scotties Tournament of Hearts yesterday.
McConnery and her fourth-seeded Dartmouth rink of third Jennifer Crouse, second Sheena Gilman and lead Jill Thomas, knocked off No. 1 Mary-Anne Arsenault’s Mayflower rink in the provincial women’s curling final in Bridgewater.
Arsenault, who won last year’s Scotties but is curling with a new team this year, entered as the top seed.
“Obviously, Mary-Anne was the favoured team, and we went in with nothing to lose,” McConnery said. “We went out there and said, ‘We have to make our shots and not worry about who we’re playing or what the other team does.’ And we did that. Everybody played excellent and it worked out.”
McConnery, who also won a provincial crown in 2003, pulled into a 4-4 tie with a deuce in the sixth end, then stole one in the seventh and two more in the ninth to earn a 7-4 win.
She also beat Mayflower’s Jill Mouzar 8-2 in the morning semifinal and finished 6-3 overall.
“Curling’s a strange sport,” she said. “Anybody can win on any given day … it’s just who’s hot at the time. We just happened to have two really hot games today.
“We played excellent in the morning and kept the momentum going.”
Arsenault, who won a pair of world titles as a member of Colleen Jones-skipped rinks, went 6-2 overall.
McConnery advances to nationals starting Feb. 21 in Victoria, B.C.
