Team Galusha will once again wear the territory鈥檚 colours at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and they won the right to do so in rather dominating fashion.
Kerry Galusha and her rink of Jo-Ann Rizzo, Margot Flemming and Sarah Koltun will be off to the Canadian women鈥檚 curling championship in Calgary next month thanks to winning the NWT Women鈥檚 Curling Championship in Hay River on Sunday by beating Team Cormier out of Inuvik by a score of 8-3 in the final.
The Inuvik rink is better known as Team Wainman and skipped by Reese Wainman, but Yellowknife鈥檚 Sharon Cormier came on board to help the young team out for the event. Two Hay River rinks skipped by Betti Delorey and Deb Stanley rounded out the field.
Galusha said it was a strong performance from start to finish for her rink.
鈥淲e only gave up one deuce all weekend and a couple of steals,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e had hammer (last rock) in all of our games to start and we always start strong. We go after teams early and we had chances to score multiple points in almost every end.鈥�
Galusha and company were never in trouble at all when you look at the scorelines in all of their games. The four teams played a double round-robin and Team Galusha won them all to earn a bye straight through to the final. Cormier and Delorey finished second and third respectively and ended up in the semifinal, which Cormier won, 11-3, to advance to the decider.
In the final, Team Galusha opened with a deuce in the first end to take an early 2-0 lead. They would steal one in the second and two more in the third to extend that lead to 5-0, before Cormier got a single back in the fourth. Team Galusha put up another deuce before the fifth-end break to go up, 7-1.
After the break, Team Galusha stole one to make it 8-1, which was followed by a single for Cormier in the seventh and a steal in the eighth, but Cormier decided to shake hands after that to give Team Galusha the win.
鈥淭he final was the longest game we had all weekend,鈥� said Galusha. 鈥淲e鈥檙e glad that other teams entered to play and that we got games to play. They all ended early, but it鈥檚 still good because we can work on what we need to and we prefer to play.鈥�
With the ticket punched for Calgary, the focus now turns to what will be the swan song for this current line-up of Team Galusha.
Galusha said the ladies decided before the season began that this season would be it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 good that we all know so there鈥檚 no drama of 鈥楢re we staying together?鈥� or anything like that,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had a great last couple of years 鈥� we didn鈥檛 play that well on tour this season, but I鈥檓 hoping the eight spiels we played will pay off for us down there. We don鈥檛 know who we鈥檙e playing yet, but the field will be good.鈥�
