Sherry Middaugh just wishes it didn’t have to be her on Saturday.
With a shot at a second consecutive Ontario women’s title on the line, Middaugh and her Coldwater and District Curling Club rink lost 7-6 to Brampton’s Alison Goring at the Tournament of Hearts in Oakville.
“I thought we played well as a team and battled hard to the end,” Middaugh said following the loss.
Leading 3-1 after four ends in the Page playoff game against Goring, Middaugh and her team of Kirsten Wall, Andra Harmark and Kim Moore surrendered two points in each of the fifth and sixth ends to fall behind 5-3.
But Middaugh and her team picked up single points in each of the seventh and eighth ends to pull even at 5-5, before Goring collected one point in the ninth to pull back in front.
Holding the hammer in the 10th end, Middaugh tied the game at 6-6 to force an extra end.
With her last shot in the 11th end, Goring nosed a Middaugh rock out of the house for the win.
On Friday afternoon, the Coldwater rink had advanced to the playoffs with an 8-6 win over Goring. Middaugh compiled a 6-3 record in round-robin play.
“We battled hard all week to get to where we needed to be, and I was proud of the way the whole team played. We were in it right up until the final end, and the difference of a few inches here or there and we might have won,” said Middaugh, a resident of Victoria Harbour.
The Coldwater rink returns to action at the Canada Cup of Curling, to be held in Yorkton, Sask., from March 18-22.
mdodd@simcoe.com
