Thursday, December 5, 2013

Hey Jennifer. . . you're in the final, you know

Jennifer Jones made it into the final at the Roar of the Rings, slipping past Rachel Homan with a 10th-end steal. Of course she’s been so focused on watching Team Howard other things here this week she wasn’t even aware that she’d advanced to the final contest, as Jim Bender reported in the Winnipeg Free Press. 
"Are we in the final? Wow, I had no idea," Jones responded after the match. "That's awesome. I mean, we battled back and really hung in there and made a couple of great shots in the last end and made her make a draw (attempt), and it worked out well for us. 
"I knew for sure that we clinched a playoff spot … Those are the kind you have to grind out to win in order to be successful this week. You just want to hang in and make them make the last shot and it worked out for us."
 The game between Homan and Jones, a re-match of last year’s Scotties final, wasn’t going to be replayed on YouTube any time soon, as Paul Wiecek pointed out in the Free Press, it wasn’t a classic. And despite losing Homan was still talking loud. Was that perhaps due to the, um, overly boisterous celebration by the Jones team after the Homan miss? If she does make it into a rematch with Jones, it does set up some interesting tensions between the two squads.  
After Jones used her final rock of the game to make a perfect freeze to two Homan rocks nestled on the four-foot, the Ontario skip sailed a draw attempt into the back rings to hand Jones the game-winning steal. 
It’s the second time this week Homan missed agame-winning draw — and just like the first time she did it, she once again blamed ice conditions. 
"We deserved that win," Homanprotested. "But that’s all right. They got away with one. And we’ll get them back." 
All of which is bold talk from a woman who hasyet to secure a playoff spot at this event, much less a berth in the final against Jones.
 

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