Quick wrap-up

Ok - as you may have guessed, I got a little tired and so the posts have gotten fewer and lamer, so here's a quick wrap-up of how things went!

We went into this thing ranked 4th of 5 and that's how we finished.  We had two somewhat lopsided games in the beginning, then had a close loss for game 3, then won game 4 for a 1-3 record.  Unfortunately, that put us just out of the running for a Challenge Round spot, so we were eliminated from the hunt.  Nonetheless, we had a great time and improved as the event went on.  

Looking ahead, we were the only team to enter the WA women's club playdowns, so we'll go directly to the Club National Championships in March in Utica, NY, and my teammates will also get first shot at the WA Pacific International Cup berth.  The P.I.C. is held in April near Vancouver, and I'll most likely be going with California.  

Thank you to everyone for all your support.  It was so much fun and I can't wait to compete again!

We won!

We won!

Lost in extra end to

Lost in extra end to Hufman. Great game!

More photos

Cyndy and Jeremy took these photos (of us and of some of the men's games.)  If you can't read the jackets, I'm in the grey hat.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cynthetic/2009Day1WesternRegionQualifiers?feat=email#5289176379870809970

Game 2 results

So, we had a bit of a, uh, quick game against Gervais.  They were a pretty solid shooting team up and down the line, so we tried a different strategy than we did against Clark because we knew we couldn't beat them with a hitting game.  (For you curling buffs, we tried to put junk up front and tap back.)  The execution wasn't quite there, but we did have some good shots.   The Gervais team are former junior champs (so early 20's and most have been curling 10+ years.)   They were quite nice and hung around to chit-chat afterwards.  

We're resting up now and will play Hufman (Alaska) at 4 today!

Warm up

Up and stretching for 8 am game!

Live scoring online

Also - the USCA is doing live line scores for our games.  Go to: http://events.curlingzone.com/index.php?task=Event&eventid=2084&view=Round-Robin  and if you click on "line scores" you'll get whatever games are going on at that time.  If you click on other draw numbers, you can check past games, etc. 

Woo-hoo!

Thursday Wrap-Up

So!  We had a great game today.  We lost, but we played very well.  We ended up losing by about 12-5, which sounds worse than it is.  We stole in one end and scored in 3 - including a 3-ender after the break.  Unfortunately, we just had two bad ends in which we gave up lots of points.  But hey,  it was all of my teammates' first time in this kind of event and it was a huge showing for such a new team.  We're all in good spirits and had a great time out there. 

Tomorrow, we're getting up early.  Our first game is against Gervais from ND at 8 am and then Hufman from Alaska at 4 pm.  

Thanks again to everyone for your support!

Gabrielle

Team photo with our coach, Leslie, after the game.

The official team meeting for rules discussions, etc, before the first games. 

at the rules meeting

at the rules meeting

This note is being circulated among the teams.

Jeff Tomlinson in the center shooting (at team practice)

practice sessions before the first round of games (team Johnson in Green)

watching the next practice

stretching before team practice

Getting ready for practice!

Sara's kids made these

To explain the "and the pet store" reference:  If we win the Qualifiers and go straight to Nationals, Sara's kids get a turtle.  If we win the Nationals, they get 1 cat (one of Beth's many, to be precise!)  If we win the Olympics, they get 5 cats (again, many, if not all,  gladly donated by Beth.)

Finished my stretches and am getting ready to go!

Finished morning practice and am off for a nap and lunch.

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Quick summary of Day 1 (Tuesday, Jan 6)

Hi all,

I got to Seattle a little after noon today and headed down to the rink for some practice. This was our first time in our jackets, so not only did we throw well, we all looked super fabulous doing it! :)

Afterwards, we went for dinner, then a few of us watched the Super League games (Granite's most competitive league, which includes a lot of folks who will be playing this weekend.)

I'm now about to sack out at Cyndy, Jeremy and Gravity's place. (Gravity is their adorable beagle.) Tomorrow, I'll practice a little at 9 and 3, then play in a league game at 7ish and generally just take it easy and have fun. The official practice is on Thurs morning and our first game is Thurs afternoon.

Hope you're all doing well and thanks for the support!
Gabrielle

Cyndy taking a practice slide

Sara's practice slide

Sara delivering a rock

The whole gang! (Cyndy, Beth, me and Sara)

Cyndy delivering a rock

Beth

Sara's Slovac last name, including the accent!

Me, Sara and Cyndy before practice (and before Beth arrived)

The drive in to Seattle

Back in Sea-Tac!

Lots of wind and weather on the way into Seattle. It was beautiful, but I was looking for a barf bag.

Near Seattle

I am a skilled plane sleeper.

Boarding

Boarding

Everyone walks outside to the planes at SJC's Terminal C.

Walking to the plane

My flight

'Must get airline sponsor' photo

On my way!

Olympic Qualifiers

Hi all!

On Tuesday, I go up to Seattle to prepare for the Women's Olympic Qualifier. My team's first game is on Thursday afternoon at 4 pm PST. There's some information on the US Curling Association's web site http://www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks/ and there may be some at the Granite Curling Club web site http://www.curlingseattle.org/. I'll also try to post basic score information here. (If you look on those site, you'll see us listed as Team Coleman. We're called "Coleman" because I'm skipping, which is sort of like team captain.)

"Qualifiers" is a competition for spots in the 2009 US Nationals/2010 Olympic Trials to be held in February 2009. There are three women's qualifier events - West, Midwest and East - and 21 teams total. One team from our group of five will go directly to Nationals/Trials, two teams will go to the Challenge Round (also known as "Second Chance,") and two will be eliminated. (From the Challenge Round, half the teams go to Nationals/Trials and the other half are eliminated.) 10 women's teams total will compete at Nationals/Trials. The winning team from that event will represent the USA at the World Championship in 2009 and the Vancouver Olympics in 2010.

Here's our schedule:

• Thursday ~9 am - Official practice
• Thursday 4 pm - Clark vs. Coleman
• Friday 8 am - Gervais vs. Coleman
• Friday 4 pm - Coleman vs. Hufman
• Saturday 8 am - Coleman vs. Cloutier
• Saturday 4 pm - Coleman = bye (The rest of the gals play at this time.)
• Sunday - Tiebreakers if necessary

These are 10-end timed games.

A bit about the teams and the event:

Three of the teams (Clark, Cloutier and Coleman) are Seattle-based; Hufman is from Alaska and Gervais is from North Dakota. We're ranked fourth (Clark, Hufman, Gervais, Coleman, Cloutier) - which I think is fair. I'm pretty sure that every member of my team (myself included) has less experience than every other player there. (Actually, combined, we still have less experience than most of these gals!) However, we will be playing on home ice and we are completely nuts, so anything's possible! I'd give us about a 15% chance of making it to the Challenge Round - which would be a fabulous result for us. Fingers crossed, we'll play well, have fun and get lucky!

Thanks again to everyone for your support! :)

Gabrielle

PS: Most of the earlier stuff on this blog is from Mixed Doubles in Two Harbors in Dec 2008. My team (Cornfield) finished 2-5 in that event.