THUNDER BAY – Krista McCarville was the first to admit it wasn’t her best week at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Up 6-1 against Alberta on Thursday, McCarville and company couldn’t hang on and dropped a 10-9, extra-end decision that, had it gone the other way, would have invited the Northern Ontario rink into the playoffs.
McCarville, third Andrea Kelly, second Kendra Lilly and leads Ashley Sippala and Sarah Potts had a second chance to move on in their round-robin finale, but left far too many shots on the ice and wound up a couple of rocks short, falling 6-5 to former world champion Kaitlyn Lawes.
“I actually struggled the most I think I’ve every struggled at a Scotties this week,” said McCarville, who returned home in time to watch her daughter, Bella’s team win their second and third games of the day to open the Ontario Winter Games, not to mention her son’s hockey game earlier in the day.
“I wasn’t feeling the ice like I was hoping, but sometimes that was the way it goes. You go into a bonspiel and you don’t play your best, or you go into a bonspiel and you play your best. I look back on it and I’m disappointed in myself, I think mostly because I wasn’t performing at the level that I wanted to perform.”
While it’s easy to point to the Alberta game, or a missed double-takeout for four that could have turned the Lawes game in her favour, it was another game earlier in the week that stood out to the 11-time provincial champion.
“The Saskatchewan game I really struggled and I wish I would have played better in that game, because one more win and we were in. Sometimes that’s the way it goes,” she said.
It was a new-look team for the Northern Ontario champs in 2024, after they made the decision last summer to join forces with New Brunswick’s Andrea Kelly and form a five-curler rotation with the 10-time New Brunswick champion.
It took some time to get used to the new formula, but McCarville said it really wasn’t a factor in the way the team performed.
“We played it a few times this year. Going in we organized our rotation and after the sixth game, that’s when we talked about what we think is the best lineup. We threw Sarah in as lead as both games and then we rotated Kendra and Ashley for second,” McCarville.
The plan, for now, is to continue with the same five players next year, when both the Northern Ontario playdowns and the Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be played in Thunder Bay.
“Usually, we take about a month to kind of digest and think about things, so after that month, we’ll come together. But as far as I know, everyone’s on board.”
McCarville’s husband, Mike, will travel to the Brier in March, the third on Northern Ontario’s Team Bonot.
Their sendoff party is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Fort William Curling Club.
