Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville off to winning start at Scotties
McCarville rink wins first match ahead of big match against Rachel Homan late Sunday
Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville is off to a winning start at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, defeating Manitoba's Jennifer Jones 11-8 at the Canadian women's curling championship Saturday.
McCarville threw a tricky double takeout with her final stone of the 10th end for the win over Jones.
"A very intense game, very back and forth, a lot of rocks in play, but we know that's the way she likes to play," McCarville said.
"I think Jones gets better and better as the week goes on, so playing them early I think was good," she said. "Going in to it we said one goal was to get our draw weight and I thought we did really well with that today."
McCarville was a finalist in last year's Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont., where her team lost to Kerri Einarson in the championship game.
Jones is a six-time Canadian champion.
McCarville's rink plays wild card Casey Scheidegger's rink at 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday before facing Rachel Homan's Ontario rink at 9:30 p.m. ET.
Homan, a three-time champion opened with a 12-3 victory over Stacie Curtis of Newfoundland and Labrador in the tournament's second draw. Casey Scheidegger's wild-card team from Lethbridge, Alta., defeated another wild card, Meghan Walter of East St. Paul, Man., 5-3.
Meanwhile, Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories picked up a 6-4 win over New Brunswick's Andrea Kelly, who was the bronze medallist in Thunder Bay.