'Roar of the Rings' - Women's Draw 3

Going into Draw 3 tonight, very very little has been settled so far. With 6 teams tied for 2nd-7th at 1-1, the only thing we know for sure is…well…absolutely nothing.

Rgardless, courtesy of  the CCA, a little post-game reaction from the Women after their second draw:



I was half expecting Kelly Scott to come right out and say she thinks her team cost her that game.....Anywho, onto the previews:

Women’s Draw 3 – 8:00 PM

Jones (0-2) v. Scott (1-1)
Well there is bad news…a bit of good news…and then more bad news for Jennifer Jones. The first bit of bad news is that she’s somehow found herself at 0-2, despite coming in as the favourite. There is no way around it….she has just played like crap so far (63%, 70%) and will downright have to be better.

The good news? Despite being down 0-2, there is such a log-jam at 1-1, that she still finds herself just one game back of the pack. The conventional wisdom, which I’ve esposed here, is that any team getting down 0-2 will have to find their way to 5-2 to have a shot. But with so many teams starting at 1-1, is it possible that a 4-3 team could see tie-breaker action? Regardless, for any of those scenarios to hit, Jones will have to turn her game around tonight. She has one strike left.

Which brings me to the bad news. Her schedule. She has Scott, Webster, Lawton, Bernard and Kliebrink left...having blown two of the easier matchups early, if Jones is gonna run the table, it’s going to be against the class of the field.

Kelly Scott will look to rebound from a morning loss to Kliebrink, where after spotting a 4-ender she was never able to recover. Scott finds herself in the middle of the 1-1 pack, and needs to take advantage of a ‘down’ Jones team.

McCarville (1-1) v. Lawton (1-1)
Sitting at 1-1, McCarville and Lawton will both look to build on the momentum gained from morning wins. Lawton bounced back from an opening round loss to Kelly Scott by taking Webster in an extra-end Monday Morning.

McCarville was able to put behind her a tough beat from Bernard by upsetting Jennifer Jones this Morning. As one of the lower seeds, McCarville opens the week against the tougher end of the draw, so Sunday-Tuesday are all about survival. McCarville’s goal is really to just stay in touch with the tiebreakers/playoffs through the tough end of the draw, hopefully closing ranks on Wednesday/Thursday. Not that there are any ‘easy’ wins here for anyone…

Holland (1-1) v. Kleibrink (1-1)
After being handed an upsed by Webster on Sunday afternoon, Kliebrink took apart Kelly Scott in convincing fashion Monday Morning. With Jennifer Jones struggling, Kliebrink has a real chance to jump up and grab this, so its important to build momentum.

After upsetting Jennifer Jones, Amber Holland wasn’t able to keep the magic alive against Bernard this morning. Kliebrink will be just as tough of a test as Bernard, so Holland will have to get it back ASAP. Holland probably the toughest first three draws, so if she were able to get out of it 2-1, I would think she’d be pretty happy with that.

Bernard (2-0) v. Webster (1-1)
Bernard finds herself in a unique position as the only 2-0 team. Having a full game advantage on the rest of the pack this early in the competition is a big advantage. In a perfect world, Bernard will now be able to ride her solid start into a playoff spot, just simply by allowing those below here to knock each other out. If she can go even just 3-2 the rest of the way, that should be good enough for the playoffs. However, I’m sure her eyes are starting to drift towards a 1st place finish, and that bye to the final.

Webster was able to upset Kliebrink last night, before dropping an extra-end game to Lawton this morning. She’ll look to move into the 2-1 crowd here, but will need to find another ‘upset special’ to do so. The good news for Webster is that she gets the really tough ones out of the way early, with her first four matchups being against Kliebrink, Lawton, Bernard and Jones (if Jones gets it going…). If she can stay at 2-2 through those four, she can look to finish strong on Wednesday/Thursday.