Sonnenberg through to Page playoffs at Olympic curling pre-trials

KITCHENER, Ont. – Renee Sonnenberg battled back from an early deficit and advanced to the Page playoffs at the 2013 Capital One Road to the Roar Olympic pre-trial tournament with a 10-7 win over Cathy Auld in the B-event final on Friday.

After giving up a steal two in the fifth and falling behind 6-3, Sonnenberg drew the four foot for the single in six to start her comeback.

Ahead by one in the 10th, Sonnenberg clogged up the four-foot, leaving Auld a difficult shot to tie. Auld’s rock rolled too far, giving the team from Grande Prairie, Alta., two more points and the victory.

Sonnenberg will now meet A-event winner Kelly Scott of Kelowna, B.C., in the Page playoff A-B game on Saturday. The winner will be guaranteed one of the two remaining women’s spots at next month’s Olympic trials in Winnipeg.

“We were getting beat,” Sonnenberg said after the game. “We had to take some risks. And it kind of worked brilliantly for us because we were going to lose if we didn’t do something. So we finished up incredibly strong.”

“We made some more precise draws and put more pressure on them,” she said. “The first three quarters of the game we were chasing them a lot. So we turned that tide, took some risks early by setting up guards and leaving their counters in. They started having to chase us, and it panned out.”

Auld, from Mississauga, Ont., moves to the C-Event and had another chance on Friday evening to get through to the playoffs of the triple-elimination tournament.

In men’s action, Steve Laycock of Saskatoon stole a point in the 10th end to defeat Greg Balsdon of Elgin, Ont., 7-6 and move on to the B-event final against the winner of Friday afternoon’s match-up between Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., and Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

Balsdon moves into the C-event and will play on Saturday morning for another chance to get to the playoffs.

Two men’s teams were eliminated from the competition on Friday morning. Bryan Cochrane of Ottawa is out after losing to Rob Fowler of Brandon, Man., 6-4. Fowler will play Saturday morning against Jean-Michel Menard St-Romuald, Que., who eliminated local favourite Rob Rumfeldt of Guelph, Ont., after stealing a single for the 5-3 win.

“We’ve got four to win, so we’re up to one at a time, like the good old cliche,” said Menard. “That’s our first one.”

“We played our first game of the spiel against Bryan Cochrane, and we really played a strong outing. Next two games against Gushue and Mark Kean we didn’t really play well, so our morale was a little low, so it was good to come out and play a good game against Rob Rumfeldt, a team we’ve always been struggling against. It was a little confidence booster.”