McCarville advances to finals April 19, 2008 Twenty-five year old Krista McCarville from Thunder Bay, Ontario, headed into the TYLENOL Players' championship as somewhat of an underdog. But after four days of competition, she has proven that she has what it takes to be crowned champion. After a huge win over the undefeated Sherry Anderson last night, McCarville was taking on Alberta's Cheryl Bernard in the semi-finals. Bernard came up short in a game against McCarville earlier in the week, and was looking for some revenge in this one.

Photo by Brent Hayden

In the first end, Krista McCarville was looking for the steal. She put her first stone right on the four-foot, burried behind a guard. Bernard playe the take-out with her first, but rubbed the guard. McCarville then guarded up that shot stone with her last shot. This left Bernard with nothing more than a draw to the button in hopes out grabbing shot stone, but she rock over curled and trapped the McCarville stone right to the button, giving her a steal of one.

The second end saw things look pretty good for Cheryl Bernard. At skip stones, Bernard had first, second and third shot stones, but Krista McCarville made a nice double take-out to eliminate some of the danger. Bernard replaced one of the stones and tucked it in behind cover, leaving McCarville an open take-out on the other. Bernard called just a simple tap with her last stone to get a duce and take a 2-1 lead.

In the third end, Krista McCarville was looking at a take-out to possibly pick up three points, but her shooter rolled just a little too far, so she had to settle for just two. This put her ahead 3-2.

The momentum had now shifted severly in favour of the McCarville team. Team Bernard missed a few key shots in the fourth end, which had McCarville sitting two rocks safely behind cover. But Bernard's third, Susan O'Connor, made a nice run-back double to clear out some rocks. With a McCarville stone still stuck on the button, Bernard called for another run-back from O'Connor which was made perfectly. But Bernard made a few misses with her two shots, which gave McCarville a big steal of two to get a 5-2 lead to finish off the first half.

McCarville remained strong on the offense in the fifth end. The young team from Ontario stole another one point to move even further ahead of Cheryl Bernard. And in the sixth, McCarville stole yet another point to go ahead by 7-2, which would turn out to be the final as Bernard decided to shake after giving up three consecutive steals.

The win advances Team McCarville to the finals for a shot at the $25,000 prize and the 40 CTRS points, which could move her into position to make the Olympic trils next year.