 Sweden's Isabella Wrana (photo: Jeffrey Au) won 6-5 over Great Britain's Eve Muirhead to advance to the Championship game. Wrana, with Jennie Wahlin at third, Almida de Val at second and newly added Maria Larsson at lead, scored two in the seventh end, then stole a single in the eighth end to sneak away with the win. The game opened with a Wrana steal, with Muirhead and her Great Britain Blue lineup of Gina Aitken, Vicky Wright, and Sophie Sinclair responded with a single. After Wrana got two in the third end, Muirhead appeared to take control of the game, get two points back in the fourth, then stole a single in the fifth and sixth ends to lead 5-3. Muirhead had advanced directly to the semifinals with a 5-0 record in the round-robin, while Wrana defeated countrymates Anna Hasselborg 4-3 in the quarterfinals earlier Saturday morning. Wrana will play Rebecca Morrison, a skip of Great Britain Red, as they won 7-4 over Germany's Daniela Jentsch in their semifinal meeting. Up against the world champions from Switzerland in the morning, they put in a near textbook performance by forcing their opponents, who had started with the hammer, taking singles at the first and fourth ends, then claiming multiple scores of two in the second end and three in the fifth end when they held last stone advantage and they ran out 6-3 winners. An even better start to the semifinal saw them steal two at the opening end from their German opponents and a steal at the fourth end put them 4-2 up at the halfway stage, allowing them to control the scoreboard en route to the win. "We got a steal of two at the first end and capitalised on that, getting our shots into the positions we wanted. I felt we had a good sense of the weight control and we got really on top of the ice," said second Jennifer Dodds. Morrison's lineup this weekend has Lauren Gray at third and Mili Smith at lead. "There were a couple of moments when we were really up against it, but we all stayed tight and reduced the damage and let them get their two at the seventh, for example. "Then down the last, we knew exactly what we were doing, and Rebecca played two great wee tap backs for the win." "There's a lot of great team dynamics and good confidence in the team, so we need to take that forward to the final." She admitted that the ideal outcome would have been a meeting with their fellow squad members in the final. Still, She pointed out that the new system means that they will all be working in different lineups when they head to Russia for their first overseas event of the season next week. "It would have been great to have both GB teams in the final on our home rink to demonstrate all the hard work we've done, but the girls have done great to get to the semi where they came up against a really good team, and we just have to congratulate Wrana for the win too," said Dodds. "It's gutting for them (GB Blue). I know how disappointed they will be. We've all been in that position, but they are great players, so they will definitely bounce back." "We are in a nine-man team, so we all want to see each other succeed and we are disappointed for them, but at the same time we are happy for ourselves, so it's a bit of mixed emotions, and in Russia, we've got different teams, so we'll start all over again there." |
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Brendan Bottcher (photo: Stan Fong) is moving on from now former teammates Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, announced Tuesday.
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