It took a great shot to beat them.
The Royal City’s Diane Gushulak rink came one stone away from advancing to the final at the B.C. Scotties women’s championships last week in Coquitlam.
Falling 9-8 to two-time national champ Kelly Scott of Kelowna in Sunday’s semifinal may have been a tough way to end the season, but the Gushulak foursome made sure it was a tough battle right to the finish.
“It’s obviously disappointing to lose, as it is for any athlete,” remarked team coach Neil Houston. “They came in (to Scotties) and played well, fighting back after a slow start and pushed it right to extra ends.
“I think there’s plenty to be proud of.”
The Royal City crew traded leads with Scott throughout the game, holding a 6-5 advantage after scoring three in the seventh end. Scott, who would end up losing 11-3 to Kamloops’ Karla Thompson in the championship, replied with two in the eighth and one in the ninth to surge ahead.
Team Gushulak, which includes third Grace MacInnes, second Jessie Sanderson and lead Sandra Comadina, didn’t put the brushes away, however.
They counted two in the 10th, after planting a corner guard down that Sanderson and MacInnes later exploited.
Scott, who held the hammer, placed the winning rock on the button in extra ends to win it.
“We knew we could beat (Scott) and it was just a matter of eight great rocks each end,” noted Sanderson. “It was back and forth and they really made a great shot to win it.”
The team, in just its second season, entered the eight-team tournament with plenty of confidence, but needed to shake off a tough 0-2 start in the round robin – against Scott, 6-3, and Thompson 9-6.
Three straight wins put them back in the playoff picture, and a dramatic 6-5 win over Kamloops’ Amanda Russett rink in the final round-robin contest gave them some momentum heading into the quarterfinals.
That’s where Gushulak came up with a huge rally, erasing a 5-1 deficit and upended Victoria’s Sarah Wark team 10-8 in extra ends.
“Diane made such a great shot to put (Wark) in that position. There was only one shot to make and it ended in our favour,” said Houston.
It was a show of character, where the teammates combined their various Canadian championship experiences to tackle the adversity, said Houston.
“They’re fighters and not prone to giving up,” he said. “They’ve experienced this level of success, been to the Canadians before from where ever they came from and that experience shone through.”
Gushulak’s record of success includes playing second on the Alison Goring rink’s 1995 Ontario Scotties champion, as well as the 2009 B.C. Scotties title with Marla Mallett.
Sanderson, who joined the team last August, said the squad bonded well over the season.
“I never played with any of them before and we didn’t know how well we’d do,” said Sanderson. “I think things clicked quickly, we won two bonspiels and just carried on right to the provincials.”
