Selena Njegovan skips Team Lawes to victory in WFG Masters opening draw
OAKVILLE, Ont. — Team Kaitlyn Lawes, minus skip Kaitlyn Lawes, picked up a victory in the opening draw of the WFG Masters.
With Selena Njegovan moving up from third to call the shots, Team Lawes scored three in the sixth and stole two in the seventh to win 8-3 over Vancouver’s Team Clancy Grandy on Tuesday morning at Sixteen Mile Sports Complex.
Njegovan, who threw 86 per cent in the game, has stepped up for the Winnipeg club this week with Lawes away on maternity leave. Laura Walker is subbing at third.
Grandy, who captured the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 title in October, got on the board first with a deuce in the second end before Lawes tied it in the third and then pulled ahead 3-2 with a steal in the fourth. Grandy knotted it up again in the fifth.
Elsewhere, Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones kicked things off with a three-ender in the first and continued to roll out for a 9-2 victory over Team Tabitha Peterson of the United States.
After holding Peterson to a single in the second, Jones took two in the third and stole a pair in the fourth. Peterson was limited to another lone point in the fifth and shook hands early when Jones scored another deuce in the sixth.
Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., needed an extra end to solve South Korea’s Team Eun-Jung Kim 8-6 and Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa beat Switzerland’s Team Raphaela Keiser 7-4.
UP NEXT
The WFG Masters continues with the start of the men’s division in Draw 2 at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).
NOTES
The WFG Masters is the third event of the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday as teams play four games against opponents outside of their pools. … The top eight teams overall advance to Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are set for Saturday evening with both finals on tap for Sunday.
