Redcliff-born curlers take silver at Travelers Curling Club Championship
Team Alberta takes silver medal in Kingston after winning a bronze in 2015
Two years ago, Redcliff-born curlers Samantha Davies and Avice DeKelver won a bronze medal in Ottawa while representing Alberta in the 2015 Travelers Curling Club Championship — something they thought was a onein-a-lifetime experience.
This year, the women were able to outdo themselves.
After qualifying for the 2017 Travelers Curling Club Championship in October, the women, alongside teammates Nanette Dupont and Kendra Nakagama, flew to Kingston to represent the province once again. This time the team brought back silver medals.
“Second in the country is great,” said Davies. “We’ve had a ton of support from everyone, and we’re back to local curling this week. It’s just been nothing but love from everyone — it’s been awesome.”
“It was an awesome week,” said DeKelver. “I am bummed about losing in the finals, but being second in the country doesn’t suck. I had never been to Kingston, and it’s beautiful. It was another great experience, and it’s amazing to represent Alberta.”
After dropping a game in the round robin, Team Alberta battled their way to a semi-final match against Team Ontario.
Trailing 3-2 after five ends, the team scored four in the sixth and one in the seventh to ice a berth in the finals against Manitoba.
After playing consistently well all tournament, Team Alberta was not able to find its game in the finals, and fell 11-3 in six ends to Manitoba.
“It was a bit of an unfortunate end to a really good tournament,” said Davies. “We gave up five in the fifth end, and it ended 11-3. It wasn’t the game we had set out to play. There was a couple misses early on, and they were able to get up on us. I think we were just one step behind the whole game, and it didn’t end well for us.”
Due to tournament rules, clubs cannot qualify for the tournament in consecutive years, but that isn’t stopping the women from setting their next set of goals for the tournament.
“Our current goal, right now, because we can’t go next year, is to go back in 2019 and try and get that gold,” said DeKelver. “We want to get the gold to finish up and get all three medals.”
“When you have a bronze and a silver, why not go for the entire set, right?” said Davies.
The duo has been curling together for roughly 20 years, and could not be happier to still be on the same team.
“I’m full of honour and love,” said Davies. “Avice is my best friend. It’s so cool that we can go somewhere and represent our province together, playing a sport that we’re so passionate about. I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. We found some really great teammates and Avice is a big part of why I still curl and why I still curl competitively. Her drive to win fuels my drive to win, and we’ll continue to support each other.”
“It’s amazing to share this with her,” said DeKelver. “When we were kids we would talk about wearing Alberta jackets — now we’ve done it twice. I just know how hard the whole team works, and we’re all very supportive of each other — it’s just a dream come true, and I’m happy to have her.”