Vernon’s Thomas Love is off to a solid start at the Tim Hortons B.C. Junior Curling Championships at the Parksville Curling Club.
Love, backed by third Erik Colwell, second Brendan Chapple and lead Johnathan Schwartz, held a share of third place at 2-1 Tuesday morning, after suffering his first loss, a 9-6 decision to Abbotsford’s Cody Tanaka. The Fraser Valley crew is the lone undefeated rink at 3-0.
Love opened the eight-team spiel by counting a triple in the 10th end to slip past Victoria’s Connor Croteau 8-7 Monday. The Vernon foursome was down 4-2 at the midway point, but rallied with a deuce in six and single in seven before Croteau retook the lead with a triple in eight.
That afternoon, Love recorded deuces in two and four, followed by a triple in six, to earn early handshakes and an 8-3 win over New Westminster’s Brayden Carpenter.
Vernon’s Matt Schiman (third Jesse Monette, second Ben Morin, lead Adam Raber and fifth Brandon Makar), who competed at the championships last year, was 0-3 heading into his Tuesday afternoon tilt with Love.
Schiman bowed 6-4 to Croteau in a back-and-forth tilt Tuesday morning.
The playdowns got off to a rough start for the Vernon quartet, who bowed 14-0 to Victoria’s Paul Henderson Monday afternoon.
They then gave up a four-ender in the sixth end en route to a 9-5 loss to Tanaka in the third draw.
In junior women’s action, Vernon’s Cierra Fisher, supported by third Sydney Hofer and front-enders Kylie Tokairin and Jaelyn Cotter, split her opening matches, starting with an 8-3 win over Chilliwack’s Kirsten Zucchet in Monday’s opening draw.
Fisher scored a triple in two, and then racked up consecutive singles on ends four through seven.
The Vernon rink allowed gave up a deuce in eight and four-ender in nine to fall 11-4 to defending B.C. champion Sarah Daniels of Delta Monday night.
Fisher battled 2013 Canadian junior champion Corryn Brown of Kamloops Tuesday afternoon, followed by a night draw against last year’s bronze medallist, Shawna Jensen of Powell River.
The round-robin for both events wraps up Thursday, with tiebreakers, if necessary, set for Friday. The junior women’s gold-medal game goes 9 a.m., Saturday, with the men’s at noon. Both finals will be televised on Sportsnet.
The B.C. junior men’s and women’s champions advance to M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors in Corner Brook, Nfld., Jan. 24-Feb. 1.
