News Masters

TRURO, N.S. — Halifax’s Mary-Anne Arsenault scored three in the seventh to cap an 8-3 win over reigning Canadian champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg during Draw 10 Friday morning at the Masters. 

The sponsor’s exemption Arsenault finished pool play with a 3-1 record and advanced to the playoffs in her team’s home-province event. 

“It’s been awesome,” Arsenault said. “It’s so great to have people behind you. You can feel the energy and people cheering. We’ve got friends and family that have come out and it’s a nice feeling.” 

Arsenault broke a 1-1 tie with a deuce in the third and added two more points in the fifth while holding Jones to singles in four and six.

“We had a great game,” Arsenault said. “It’s the whole take two, give them one, take two give them one, and the math works out every time.” 

Jones holds a 2-1 record with one round robin game remaining against Russia’s Anna Sidorova in the evening draw.

Meanwhile, defending champion Val Sweeting of Edmonton also advanced after stealing a 5-2 victory from Scotland’s Eve Muirhead. Sweeting (3-0) swiped one in the sixth to go up by one and stole two more points in eight. Muirhead finished with a 1-3 record and did not qualify. 

In men’s division action, Jim Cotter of Vernon, B.C., clipped Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers 4-3 in an extra end. Cotter, who won the Tour Challenge Tier 2 to earn a promotion into the Masters, qualified for the playoffs at 3-0 with one round-robin game to go. Carruthers wrapped the round-robin at 2-2 and remains in the mix pending the results of the three draws remaining.

Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock also earned an extra-end victory edging Halifax’s Shawn Adams 6-5. Laycock now holds a 1-2 record and faces Pat Simmons of Calgary in Draw 12. Adams is finished at 0-4.

Scotland’s David Murdoch slid past Sweden’s Niklas Edin 6-1 to earn his first win of the Masters and stay in contention. Murdoch (1-2) jumped out to an early 5-0 lead scoring a deuce in the first, stealing two in the second and one in the third. The teams alternated singles through four and five and shook hands. 

The Masters is the second stop on the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tour and runs through to Sunday at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre.