B.C.’s Daniels advances to women’s final at Canadian curling juniors

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — British Columbia’s Sarah Daniels defeated defending champion Kaitlyn Jones of Nova Scotia 9-7 on Saturday afternoon in the women’s semifinal of the Canadian junior curling championship.

After exchanging single points in the first two ends, Daniels opened the game up for her Delta, B.C., rink in the third with a four-ender.

“Getting that four was huge for us, settle our nerves and all that, it’s good,” said Daniels, a 19-year-old health sciences student at Simon Fraser University.

Nova Scotia cut into that lead in the fourth end, scoring two to make it 5-3. In the fifth, Daniels was left with a freeze for one, lifting British Columbia to a 6-3 lead at the fifth-end break.

Jones took one in the sixth end with hammer then produced a steal in the seventh to trail 6-5.

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Daniels scored two points in the eighth, forcing Nova Scotia to produce at least a score of two in the ninth end and took advantage of a key miss to do so. British Columbia flashed its final hit attempt, leaving Nova Scotia with a draw for two to trail 8-7 heading into the final end.

In the 10th, Jones nearly made a difficult double tap, but her counting stone rolled too far to the open side, leaving Daniels with a hit for one and the 9-7 win.

British Columbia plays Alberta’s undefeated Selena Sturmay in the gold-medal game on Sunday morning.

In the men’s semifinal, Manitoba’s JT Ryan defeated Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter 9-3 in nine ends.

A triple in the seventh and a four points in the ninth sent Ryan to the gold-medal match.

Ryan faces British Columbia’s Tyler Tardi in the men’s final on Sunday. Tardi is seeking his third-straight Canadian junior title.

Sunday’s winners will represent Canada at the 2019 world junior championships in Liverpool, N.S., in mid-February.

The Canadian Press