Silvernagle’s Scotties run comes to an end
Saskatchewan fails to make weekend, but has memories as ‘hometown team’
MOOSE JAW Team Saskatchewan’s weekend plans have changed at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
When the Canadian women’s curling championship began Feb. 15, Saskatchewan skip Robyn Silvernagle had hoped to be among the four skips competing on the Saturday and Sunday of the closing weekend.
Those hopes were dashed Friday afternoon when Silvernagle lost 9-4 to Ontario’s Rachel Homan and Northern Ontario’s Krista Mccarville defeated Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt 6-5. Those results eliminated Silvernagle from the Scotties with one draw remaining in the championship round.
“We are disappointed because wanted to play on the final day,” said Jessie Hunkin, Silvernagle’s second. “Only one team can win at the end of the day and it just wasn’t our week.”
Mccarville’s win over Birt determined the final four playoff teams. Jennifer Jones (Team Wild Card), Kerri Einarson (Manitoba), Homan and Mccarville all advanced to the Page playoffs, with final playoff positioning left to be determined after Friday’s late draw at Mosaic Place.
Silvernagle, who was curling with Hunkin, third Stefanie Lawton and lead Kara Thevenot, was to play B.C.’S Corryn Brown in Friday’s late game — one that didn’t have any impact on the Page playoff standings.
“We’re actually feeling pretty good,” Hunkin said. “You have to have perspective when you come off (the loss to Homan). We had a really fun week.”
An enjoyable aspect of the Scotties
was the support of the pro-saskatchewan crowd at Mosaic Place.
“We wanted to win for them because they are such a great crowd,” Hunkin said. “It’s a little disheartening, but they understand that it’s sport and you can’t always win.”
Silvernagle was in a hole after Wednesday’s 4-3, extra-end loss to Mccarville in the preliminary round. The Saskatchewan skip would have advanced directly to the championship pool with a win. Instead, Silvernagle dropped into a tiebreaker, held at 8 a.m. on Thursday.
In the tiebreaker, Saskatchewan defeated New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford 9-7 in an extra end. Silvernagle then beat Birt 8-7 before running out of gas against Jones, losing 8-3 in eight ends.
“(Wednesday’s game) was a tough loss because it put us back a game heading into the championship round,” Lawton said. “You have to battle through that and you’re going to have some bumps along the way. Our team is really good at bouncing back and recovering from that, and we did. We had a long day (Thursday), but we just came back a little bit flat (Friday).”
Silvernagle experienced the ups and downs that accompany any team when competing in a national championship, according to Pat Simmons, the high-performance director with Curlsask.
“Their goal would have been curling on the weekend,” said Simmons, a five-time Saskatchewan men’s champion and two-time Canadian champion while curling out of Alberta. “For me, it’s all about improvement and making strides in the right direction. Sometimes it shows that in results and sometimes they don’t.”
Silvernagle’s performance means Saskatchewan hasn’t won a national women’s title since 2011, when Kronau’s Amber Holland stood atop the podium.
“You would like to win every year,” Simmons said. “The reality is there are some other really good teams and they are improving, too. The trick is you have to improve and improve in the right ways. In a lot of cases, these are still amateur athletes trying to perform at a professional level.”
The 2020 Scotties was Lawton’s sixth appearance at the Canadian women’s championship. She reached the national championship four times as a skip before making back-to-back appearances as Silvernagle’s third.
At the 2015 Scotties, which were also held in Moose Jaw, Lawton finished fourth.
“It’s a tough battle getting through to the playoff round,” Lawton said. “Last year, we made it to the 1-2 (Page playoff ) game and it was quite the accomplishment. We ended up with a bronze medal that we are very proud of.”
Hunkin would have preferred a different result at the Scotties. However, she looked back fondly on her experience in Moose Jaw.
“It’s been a such a fun week being the hometown team,” Hunkin said, “and it’s something that we’ll never forget.”