Edmonton's Sweeting claims final spot in national curling finals

Valerie Sweeting of Edmonton Alta., lets out a sigh of relief on Sunday after capturing a berth in the Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials. Sweeting defeated Kelly Scott of Kelowna B.C., 6-4. (CP/ Michael Burns)

KITCHENER, Ont. -- Edmonton's Val Sweeting claimed the final women's berth in the Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials with a 6-4 victory over Kelly Scott of Kelowna, B.C. in the final qualifying game of the Road to the Roar.

Sweeting and teammates Dana Ferguson, Joanne Courtney, Rachelle Pidherny and coach Taina Smiley will join seven other women's teams in Winnipeg as they battle for the honour of representing Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

"It feels great," said Sweeting. "We kept it tight at the beginning and stepped it up for the last half and played well ... We knew we would have to stay strong and that they would make good shots to get back in it."

Scott and teammates Jeanna Schraeder, Sasha Carter, Sarah Wazney and coach Brent Giles rattled off four straight wins early in the competition to qualify for the playoffs. But after losing the Page playoff A-B Trials qualifying game 12-4 on Saturday night to Renee Sonnenberg of Grande Prairie, Alta., the team needed to regroup quickly.

"It was just one of those games that didn't work," Scott said. "You go and restart the game and it might be totally different, but in that game, it wasn't working for us."

In the fifth, both teams' sweepers -- Carter and Wazney on Scott's, and Pidherny and Courtney on Sweeting's -- repeatedly guided their skips' rocks through a small port. Sweeting was able to steal a single when Scott's final takeout attempt didn't get the roll.

The turning point of the game came in the sixth, when Sweeting stole three to go up 5-2.

After forcing a single in seven, she blanked the eighth to hold on to hammer and made a runback double in nine. But Scott was still able to steal one to keep it close.

Trailing 5-4 in the 10th, Scott needed two to win, but Sweeting made the perfect draw to put the game away.