Team Middaugh moving forward after European curling trip

Skip is content with the way her team curled in the Women's Masters in Basel, Switzerland.

Left to right: Leigh Armstrong, Lee Merklinger, Jo-Ann Rizzo, Sherry Middaugh, wearing their new uniforms sponsored by VR Mechanical. Twitter

Curler Sherry Middaugh now has her sights set on the future after a quarter-final defeat in Europe.

The Victoria Harbour, Ont., native’s next competition will be the second event of the Grand Slam of Curling, the Masters, held in Truro, N.S.

Her team will look to make it through the quarters for the first time on the young season, but the skip believes it won’t be an easy task with the competition at the event.

We play a lot of the same teams that we played in the first slam, we play (Jennifer) Jones and (Anna) Sidorova again,” Middaugh said. “We also play (Alina) Pätz, who won the World’s last year, from Switzerland, and a local team from Nova Scotia, Mary-Anne Arsenault, who used to play with Colleen Jones, who’s won Canadians four or five times.”

Middaugh will be competing against many rinks she say in Switzerland, including Sidorova, and Binia Feltscher.

Anna Sidorova (left) and Sherry Middaugh (right) setting up their match at the Grand Slam of Curling Tour Challenge.

Anna Sidorova (left) and Sherry Middaugh (right) setting up their match at the Grand Slam of Curling Tour Challenge in September.

In the tournament, Middaugh was 2-0 going into the match against Sidorova, who was the eventual champion, but a few costly errors cost the team it’s undefeated record, losing 6-3 in seven ends.

“We made a couple mistakes, and I had some trouble reading the ice,” Middaugh said, when she returned to Canada. “It was a close game but it wasn’t (really), they certainly out-curled us.”

Feltscher, from the host country, was the opponent for team Middaugh in the quarter-finals.

Middaugh got off to a shaky start, giving up a steal of three in the fourth end to go down 4-0 halfway through the game, but the rink was able to get it together in the second half, stealing one in the seventh, and two in the eighth to force an extra end.

Unfortunately for Middaugh, Feltscher was able to get it back in the ninth, picking up two points to move on, knocking out the Canadian team in the quarters for the second time this season.

“We had just one bad end,” Middaugh said about the fourth end. “We made a lot of half-shots, and I missed my last shot which gave them a steal of three.”

“Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.”

The team will have a little bit of time off to get ready for the Masters tournament on the east coast, which begins on Oct. 27.

Middaugh will be looking to bounce back against the two teams that they surrendered losses to on their overseas trip to Switzerland.

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By: Connor Dorion
Posted: Oct 18 2015 1:45 pm
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