Jessie Withey and her Prince George juvenile women's curling team put a lot of miles on their sliders and brooms this season, but in the end it all paid off.
Withey won the silver medal at the B.C. juvenile women's championship at the Cowichan Rocks Curling Club on Sunday. Skipped by Withey, the Prince George Golf and Curling Club crew that included third Carly Connor, second Hannah Lindner and lead Carsyn Hamilton lost 8-2 in Sunday's final to Heather Drexel and her combined rink from Coquitlam, White Rock and Cloverdale.
"There wasn't much between the top six teams and the skip (Drexel) made some nice shots when she had to," said Withey's coach Doug Dalziel. "(In the final), we were down one playing the fifth end with hammer and she stole one in six and one in seven. We got the hammer back, but she (Drexel) stole three in the seventh. It was a good game until the sixth end."
Despite the loss, the team, in its first year of playing together, is satisfied with the outcome.
"The girls are really happy with the weekend," said Dalziel. "They're really thrilled. We headed to Quesnel every weekend (for the first half of the season) and Hannah is from 100 Mile House and she would meet us there. She fit in really nicely."
At provincials, Withey and Drexel were in the same four-team round-robin pool and met in the opening draw on Friday. Drexel came away with a 6-4 victory.
Withey and her team delivered a 7-5 win over Kelowna's Erin Huitema in the second game and defeated Kimberley's Alysha Buchy 7-6 to wrap up the round-robin.
"In the first game (against Drexel), they just ran us out of rocks," said Dalziel. "The skip made a lot of good shots. In the second game we were behind 5-2 and won 7-5. We stole one in seven and three in eight. It was a big win and a confidence builder."
In Withey's final round-robin game, Buchy stole singles in the fifth and sixth ends, but Withey stole a single point in an extra end to take the victory.
Withey's 2-1 round-robin record put her second behind Drexel and qualified the rink for a semifinal game against Clare Schmidt from Vernon.
Withey came away with a 7-6 victory.
"They were up 5-1 after four ends, but we scored two in five and were within striking distance," said Dalziel. "We took three in the seventh with the hammer and were tied up coming home and we stole last rock in the last end."
Withey's rink, 15-year-olds with the exception of 14-year-old Lindner, has one more year of juvenile eligibility left.
Alyssa Connell's PGGCC rink of third Bailey Eberherr, second Jordan Henson and lead Erin Ross posted a 2-1 round-robin record but lost to Schmidt in the last seeding game and didn't qualify for the playoffs.
On the juvenile men's side, Coleton Vriesendorp posted a 1-2 round-robin record and didn't qualify for the playoffs.
