Fleury rolls out to victory over Sweeting at Masters

Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., at the 2016 WFG Masters in Okotoks, Alta. (Anil Mungal)

OKOTOKS, Alta. — Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., grabbed a 7-4 victory over Edmonton’s Val Sweeting during Draw 3 action Wednesday afternoon at the WFG Masters.

Fleury said it was a big win to start the round-robin portion for sure.

“We’re happy with how we played and got comfortable with the ice early,” she said. “It’s a good start.”

The five-player squad from Sudbury, Ont., has Calgary native Crystal Webster playing third with Jenn Wylie throwing lead stones while joining her sister Fleury in the house as vice skip. Jenna Walsh has stayed put at second with lead Amanda Gates not able to make it.

“Jenn and I have a lot of experience in the house together so we decided to keep that and Crystal’s throwing third,” Fleury said. “Amanda’s back home, she had a wedding to go to.”

After Sweeting scored a single in the first, Fleury drew to the four-foot circle for shot rock with her first skip stone to sit two in the second end. Sweeting was only able to nudge Fleury’s shot rock and Fleury capitalized with her last to score three.

Fleury followed that counting another trey to pull away as Sweeting missed on her last in the third.

Another steal in the fourth made it 7-1 Fleury, however, Sweeting struck back settling for a point in the fifth and earned single steals in six and seven to trail by three coming home.

Fleury closed out the game running Sweeting out of rocks in the eighth.

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Ottawa’s Rachel Homan opened her Masters title defence with a 5-3 win over Alina Paetz of Switzerland. Homan broke a 3-3 tie with a single in seven followed by a steal coming home.

Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., held on for a 9-6 victory against Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones. Flaxey jumped out to a 3-0 lead scoring two in the first and stealing one in the second. Jones was limited to singles in three and five as Flaxey added pairs of points in four and six to lead 7-2 with two ends to play.

Jones scored four in the seventh to narrow the gap to one and Flaxey added her fourth deuce of the game in the final end to clinch the W.

Meanwhile in men’s division action, Team Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., topped Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 9-4.

Skip Brad Gushue is missing his sixth event of the season due to a lingering hip/groin injury. Charley Thomas is in at third with regular vice skip Mark Nichols moving up to call the shots.

Nichols snapped a 4-4 tie stealing three in the sixth and swiped two in seven to ice the game.

Team Bottcher recently added seven-time Grand Slam champion Carter Rycroft as a fifth player and consultant/coach.

Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., scored three in the eighth to lift his team to a 4-2 win over Niklas Edin of Sweden.

NOTES: The WFG Masters is the first of seven events on the 2016-17 Pinty’s GSOC schedule. … The event is also the first of four majors in the series alongside the Boost National, Meridian Canadian Open and WestJet Players’ Championship. … Television coverage begins Thursday on Sportsnet. … The WFG Masters runs through to Sunday at Pason Centennial Arena with action continuing Wednesday at 4 p.m. MT.

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