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Team Galusha makes playoffs in first bonspiel of new season at Saville Shootout in Edmonton

Team Galusha is off and running with its new season and they’ve already hit the pay window.
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Team Galusha wrapped up its first bonspiel of the season at the Saville Shootout in Edmonton this past weekend. They are, in front, Sarah Koltun; back row from left, Margot Flemming, Jo-Ann Rizzo, Kerry Galusha, Megan Koehler and Shona Barbour. Photo courtesy of Team Galusha

Team Galusha is off and running with its new season and they’ve already hit the pay window.

Kerry Galusha and her rink of Jo-Ann Rizzo, Sarah Koltun, Margot Flemming, Shona Barbour and Megan Koehler hit the ice at the Saville Shootout in Edmonton this past weekend. The ladies were one of 20 teams in the event and managed to make it to the top eight after finishing the round-robin with a record of four wins and one loss. The victories came over Kayla Skrlik of Calgary (8-3), Nancy Martin of Saskatoon (6-5), Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton (7-2) and Abby Ackland of WInnipeg (8-7).

The lone defeat came at the hands of Rachel Homan, a 9-2 blemish, and it was a game in which Galusha said the ladies just didn’t play well.

“We had our chances in that one, but we just came out flat,” she said.

The big end was the third, where Galusha gave up a steal of four to make it 6-1 at that point.

“They had three (rocks) buried and Homan gave us an out, but we hit one of ours up front with our last rock and that gave them the four,” said Galusha.

Even with the defeat, their record was good enough to see them into the playoffs, where they met up with Casey Scheidegger of Alberta in the quarter-final. After a blank in the first end, Scheidegger scored two with last rock in the second, which was answered in kind by Galusha in the third. Both teams would trade deuces up to the seventh end, where Galusha only scored one with hammer to make it 6-5. Scheidigger had the hammer coming home in the final end and scored a single to win it, 7-5.

Galusha said Scheidegger made a great shot with her last rock in the eighth.

“We had the end set up to steal,” she said. “She had a tough draw to the button and she got her one. You always want the hammer coming home and if she missed, we would’ve either stolen the win or taken it to an extra end.”

Add up all the games Galusha and company played and it was six in a span of 48 hours — quite the grind for a team playing in their first event of the season.

But you won’t hear Galusha complaining.

“Our playoff game was at 8 a.m. and our bodies were in rough shape, but we still did really well for our first one,” she said. “Jo-Ann and I got in about one hour of throwing before leaving for Edmonton and some of the girls got in some slides (at the Multiplex).”

Next up for the ladies is the PointsBet Invitational in Fredericton, N.B., a new event organized by Curling Canada for the top Canadian teams in the World Curling Team Ranking System. Team Galusha got their invite by virtue of being in the women’s top-12 at the start of the season and their first game will be a re-match with Scheidegger on Sept. 22.

Unlike in Edmonton, this event is a single-knockout format, meaning one loss at any point and it’s all over.

“It was good to play them and get a look at them because they’re a new team this year,” said Galusha. “You get to see what their strengths and weaknesses are, especially because it’s sudden-death in New Brunswick, so we want to put together a good game plan for next time.”

Correction: Casey Scheidegger’s named was spelled incorrectly in the original post. NNSL Media apologizes for the error and any embarrassment it may have caused.