SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. - It was a Super Sunday for Jennifer Jones.
And the end of a brilliant run by Prince Edward Island's Kathy O'Rourke rink.
While most of the sport's world attention was focused on the Super Bowl festivities from Miami, Jones was winning a third straight Canadian women's curling championship. Jones accomplished the feat with an 8-7 extra end victory over P.E.I. at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the Essar Centre.
"I never thought we would do it," said Jones, who has won three titles with her Winnipeg-based team of Cathy Overton-Clapham, Jill Officer and Dawn Askin. "To win three in a row is pretty incredible. The way we won and the way we came back was pretty awesome."
Jones battled back from a 6-3 sixth-end deficit to pull out the win with a hit for one in the 11th end.
"I was disappointed in how we started the game," said Jones, who also won a Canadian women's title in 2005. "We picked rocks that would curl more and it cost us early. We also had rocks that would curl more, so that means we could bury around some guards. We just had to battle back and anything would happen. We've proven that before and we proved it (Sunday)."
Jones was tested by a scrappy Island crew. O'Rourke calls the game while throwing second stones. Erin Carmody, throws skip stones, Geri-Lynn Ramsay, plays third and Tricia Affleck is the lead.
Al Ledgerwood is the team's coach and Shelly Bradley is the alternate.
They will be arriving in Charlottetown at different times today.
It was quite the performance at the Scotties for P.E.I. because Carmody and Ramsay are both 21 and one year removed from juniors.
O'Rourke is the steadying force on the team. She was able to guide the squad and a red-hot shooting Carmody to an early lead. But the couldn't hang on as Jones roared back in the final round ends.
"We were close on a couple of calls so there might have been some inexperience there," said Carmody.
O'Rourke, 45, was attempting to win P.E.I.'s first Canadian women's curling championship. She fell short of that but already created some history for the province by being the first skip to reach a final at the Scotties.
"It's not nearly enough," said O'Rourke. "We would like to have made history and finished it off. We gave it our best but it ended up being a couple of inches short in this game."
One of those instances was in the ninth end when Carmody came up light on a draw against two. Jones grabbed a 7-6 lead with Carmody's mistake.
"It caught just a little bit of a fudgy path," said Carmody. "It curled and kind of died there but my throw could have been a little bit light too."
The Islanders have grabbed the attention of the Canadian curling community with their performance this week. It was also generated a great deal of interest on the Island because O'Rourke was chasing more than P.E.I.'s first national women's title.
As Team Canada, they would have earned the right to defend their title at the 2011 Scotties in Charlottetown.
Instead that honour once again will go to Jones.
"I hope that we inspired a lot of people," said Carmody. "If you really believe in yourself, you can go really far."
Carmody struggled in Friday's 8-5 loss to Jones in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff game.
She rebounded Saturday in the 10-6 victory over Ontario's Krista McCarville in Saturday's semifinal with a draw for two in the first end and two raises to score two and grab a 7-2 lead after five ends.
She also shot 93 per cent compared to 60 per cent in the loss to Jones.
"I was pretty upset (after Friday's game),'' said Carmody. "They were right there to comfort and support me. They did all they could to pick me up for this game.''
Jones joins Nova Scotia's Colleen Jones and Saskatchewan's Vera Pezer as the only skips to win three straight national titles. Colleen Jones won four in a row from 2001 to 2004. Pezer won three straight from 1971 to 1973.
"It doesn't get any easier but it still feels just as good," said Jones. "Still, I never expected in a million years to win three."
Jones now travels to the Ford women's world championship (March 20-28) in Swift Current, Sask.
Jones has taken part in world championships in Scotland (2005), Vernon, B.C. (2008) and South Korea (2009).
Jones always has a soft spot for the Canadian cities playing host to the international championship.
(Regina Leader-Post)
