Mary-Anne Arsenault has punched her ticket to the final of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s curling championship.
The four-time provincial champion from Mayflower handed clubmate Colleen Jones her first loss of the event, a 6-3 decision Friday evening at the Dartmouth Curling Club.
Arsenault (6-1) and her team of Christina Black, Jen Baxter and Emma Logan opened with two in the first end and stole one in the seventh. After she added another single in the ninth frame, the veteran skips shook hands.
Arsenault, who earlier in the day defeated Dartmouth's Tanya Hilliard 11-5, advances directly to Sunday's championship game at 2:30 p.m.
Jones, meanwhile, will play in Saturday's semifinal against either Hilliard or defending champion Jill Brothers. Jones, owner of 14 provincial championships, was 6-0 heading into her matchup against Arsenault. Her sixth victory came earlier Friday, a 4-3 decision over Brothers.
Mayflower's Brothers redeemed herself in her evening tilt against Hilliard with a 6-2 triumph.
Brothers and Hilliard will play in a tiebreaker Saturday morning at 9 a.m. The winner will meet in the 7 p.m. semifinal.
Other Friday scores include: Theresa Breen (Halifax) 7, Julie McEvoy (Lakeshore) 2; Colleen Pinkney (NSCA) 8, Mary Myketyn-Driscoll (Mayflower) 2; Breen 8, Pinkney 5 and Myketyn-Driscoll 14, McEvoy 5.
DELOITTE TANKARD
Jamie Murphy (Halifax) clinched a spot in the final at the men’s provincial championship, also at Dartmouth.
Murphy, a five-time winner, dropped defending champion Stuart Thompson (Dartmouth) 11-4 . Murphy, third Paul Flemming, second Scott Saccary and lead Phillip Crowell broke open a close game with a four-spot in the fifth end to finish preliminary play at 6-1.
Kendall Thompson (Halifax) picked up a pair in each of the eighth and tenth ends to double Chad Stevens (Truro) 8-4 and clinch a spot in Saturday’s semifinal (7 p.m.) at 5-2,
Brent MacDougall (Mayflower) opened with a three and added deuces in the seventh and eighth ends to take a 9-2 win over Matthew Manuel (Halifax).
In the other game, Alan O’Leary (Dartmouth) beat Andrew Gibson (Lakeshore) 7-3.
Stuart Thompson, Manuel and Stevens all own 4-3 records while MacDougall is 3-4 and O’Leary and Gibson 1-6.
The championship game is on Sunday (9 a.m.)
