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Silvernagle books ticket for playoffs at provincials

Jan 27, 2017 | 5:23 PM

Robyn Silvernagle is in to the playoffs at the Viterra Scotties women’s provincials in Melville, after a 6-5 extra end win over Penny Barker in draw eight.

The North Battleford skip is now 6-1 with one round robin game remaining, losing only to Nancy Martin on Thursday afternoon 5-3.

That is good enough to not only guarantee a playoff spot, but to guarantee a top-two round robin finish.

“We set some goals when we came into the event and that was the first one, was to make playoffs,” Silvernagle said. “We`ve achieved our first goal, which we`re really happy with.

“We’ve got our nerves out, we’ve worked out any kinks that were rising and now we just feel great.”

Silvernagle, the 2005 provincial junior champion, knows her 6-1 record has not come easily.

The Twin Rivers Curling Club rink, made up of Silvernagle at skip, Dayna Demers at third, Cristina Goertzen at second, and Kara Thevenot at lead, has won four games by a single point and two others by just two points.

The most recent win, however, 6-5 over Team Barker, shouldn’t have gone to an extra end, according to Silvernagle.

“We had a chance for essentially the win in the 10th end, [but] I just over-curled and rolled out and that gave her the open hit for two to take it to the extra,” Silvernagle explained.

But in the 11th end, Silvernagle didn’t even have to throw her final rock.

That’s because her first shot was bang on.

“I came and corner froze so that her run-back was harder and she just under-curled,” she said. “We were still shot rock so I didn’t have to throw my last rock.”

Gerald Shymko, Team Silvernagle’s coach, who skipped for Team Saskatchewan at the 1999 Brier, believes the team is extremely focused.

“Their communication is great,” he said. “Their sweeping is excellent. Their judgement is good and they’ve just put stuff together. Robyn [Silvernagle] has made a lot of huge shots, along with all the rest of them and that’s why we’re [in the playoffs].”

Silvernagle closes out the round robin on Friday evening with first place up for grabs, as she will go head-to-head with the only other rink that has gone 6-1, Team Lawton.

This game is a warm-up match of sorts for the playoffs because in the page-playoff system, the top two seeds face off with a spot in the finals up for grabs. With both teams at 6-1, that playoff game has already been determined and will be played on Saturday at 7 p.m. But tonight’s round robin game won’t be completely meaningless.

“Winning is important tonight because I believe you get hammer, I don’t know that for sure, but you get choice of rock colour,” Silvernagle said. “So winning is still big but the pressure is definitely off a little bit because you know you’re in that [first vs. second] game.”

The other playoff game in the page-playoff system will be between the third and fourth ranked teams, who are still to be determined. The winner of that game, set for Saturday at 2 p.m., advances to a semifinal, while the winner of the top two ranked teams goes right to the final.

If Silvernagle loses in that first vs. second playoff match against Team Lawton, she will not be eliminated. Instead, they would be ‘relegated’ to the semifinal where they would face the winner of the third and fourth ranked teams. The winner of that game would advance to the finals.

That means it`s possible Team Silvernagle could play against team Lawton three times in three days.

It would be a lot, but this entire tournament has been just that, with some teams playing three times in one day. Team Silvernagle has played eight games in four days because the Scotties began on Tuesday.

“Bonspiels usually start Thursday or Friday and go until Monday so we’re not used to this many games,” Silvernagle said. “But being in the top-3 allowed us to not have a three-game day, so that was huge. We’ve only ever had two games where other teams would have one game [on] one day and then three games on another day. So it was big for us.

“By the end of the weekend you’re definitely exhausted but when you’re doing well, it’s all good.”

With a win during Friday night’s round robin ‘tune-up’ game, Silvernagle would finish at 7-1, but even without a win, a 6-2 record is nothing to scoff at.

“I’m so happy for the girls with the way they’ve played so far,” Shymko said. “I hope the rest of the way they can be satisfied with the way they play. We’ll see where everything falls. They are 4 great people to begin with and they just have great focus so hope everything works.”