MCCARVILLE RINK JOINS BIG NAMES AS FINALISTS
Northern Ontario skip doesn’t play on tour, says curling is a secondary factor in her life
One of these things is not like the other.
When the playoffs get underway Saturday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, three of the top 10 women’s curling teams in the world will be in action.
Heading into the final championship round draw Friday night, three-time Canadian champion Rachel Homan of Ontario and six-time champ Jennifer Jones (Team Wild Card) had 9-1 records, while world No. 3 Kerri Einarson of Manitoba was at 8-2.
Jones is ranked fifth in the world, Homan eighth.
The fourth team in the playoffs is skipped by Northern Ontario’s Krista Mccarville, who doesn’t play on tour and admits curling is secondary in her life.
“Right from the time we started getting more competitive, we said ‘You know what, curling’s not No. 1 in our lives,’” Mccarville said after a playoff-clinching 6-5 win over Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt.
“We love curling and it’s a passion and all of us want to do it, but it’s not our No. 1. We practise really hard at home. We might not spiel as much but (coach Rick Lang) is amazing with his practice schedule and just the things he has us doing on the ice and I think that’s really important.
“I have a family and they are No. 1 to me and I love my profession of teaching. But to come out here and contend is exciting and we have worked really hard this year.”
The seeding for the playoffs was still to be determined on Friday night.
Manitoba was on the ice against Ontario and Team Wild Card was playing Northern Ontario. The top two teams after those games will play in Saturday’s Page 1-2 game, with the winner getting direct entry into the final and the loser dropping to the semifinal.
The other team will face Northern Ontario in the 3-4 game, with the winner advancing to the semifinal and the loser being eliminated.
Jones won her ninth straight game on Friday afternoon, scoring four in the first end and going on to beat Einarson 12-7 in a rematch of the Manitoba final.
Team Wild Card’s only loss so far came in the opening draw of the tournament last Saturday, against Ontario.
“It’s an amazing field and you knew it was gonna come down to the last game and that’s what’s happening,” Jones said.
Her team has been very consistent this year after struggling mightily as Team Canada in Sydney, N.S., a year ago, and Jones has an explanation for that.
“We didn’t love the ice last year and that kind of got us,” she said. “We struggled a lot with draw weight. This year I feel like the ice has been a lot more consistent and we’re more in love with the ice. That has helped us a lot.”
Homan has looked very consistent and has had the fewest close games of the three at the top. However, she said none of that is important now as only the future games matter.
“Everything’s going really well,” she said.
“You’re 9-1 and you don’t clinch anything yet. Everyone is beating everybody and they’re all playing really well.”
Friday marked the end of the road for a few notable teams, including the host province reps from Saskatchewan (Robyn Silvernagle) and Team Canada, skipped by Chelsea Carey.
Saskatchewan took a 5-5 record into the final draw, while Canada was a surprising 4-6.
“It’s disappointing,” said Carey, who won her second Canadian title last year in Sydney.
“We just didn’t quite have it. We weren’t far off of good things, we just couldn’t quite get it together. We showed flashes of it in a couple games but we couldn’t produce it as consistently as we need to.”
Carey, third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachel Brown did get to spend a year as Team Canada and that’s a memory they’ll always cherish.
“Being Team Canada is a huge honour,” Carey said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t go better this week, but we wore the Maple Leaf with all the pride we could and that’s all we could really do.
“We just tried to conduct ourselves in the way that we feel Team Canada should and I think we did that in the face of some adversity this week.”