Krista McCarville, Sarah Potts, Ashley Sippala and Kendra Lilly were pretty confident before stepping on the ice in Grand Prairie, Alta. last week to start the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Their belief in themselves is over the moon after a silver-medal finish, falling 7-6 on Sunday night to the host Alberta squad skipped by Calgary’s Chelsea Carey.
The team had high hopes, said lead Sarah Potts on Monday night, a bag pipe band and about 50 friends and family on hand at Thunder Bay International Airport to greet team Northern Ontario upon their arrival home.
But never in their wildest dreams did the rookie team with the veteran skip dare to think they’d finish a single shot away from winning the national women’s curling championship, at least not so soon.
“We will be very happy with second down the road,” said Potts, named a second-team all-star at the Scotties at the lead position.
“Making the final is a huge accomplishment and if you’d told me that we were going to make the final, I would have taken that all day. Right now it kind of stings because obviously it was so close. But a couple of weeks from now, once it all sinks in, we’ll be really proud of what we accomplished.”
McCarville, the long-time skip who took a much celebrated two-season break after making four Scotties appearances in five years, returning to the ice this season with a renewed sense of desire to be the nation’s best, said the goal going in was making the playoffs.
They accomplished that and so much more, she said, her husband Mike and two small children on hand to welcome mom home.
“Losing the final, it’s a bummer, but we are coming out with lots of positives from the week. We curled really well and being our first year together and we’re very excited with how we did. Silver medals are always really nice, although you want the gold,” said McCarville, who won bronze alongside Sippala at the 2010 Scotties.
“We have a lot to build on for next year from this week.”
This season was all about confidence building, learning each other’s games – and for Sippala and herself, shaking off the rust that built up being away from the game for a couple of years.
McCarville thinks they’re close, though admitted she had her moments of uncertainty.
“Sometimes you doubt yourself and you wonder if you’re at that level,” McCarville said, adding it was a relaxing week, despite all the come-from-behind wins -- the Fort William Curling club foursome trailed in 13 of 14 games played at the Scotties, finishing the round robin 7-4 before knocking off Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson in the 3-4 Page Playoff and reigning champion Jennifer Jones in the semifinal, their second win over Jones in the competition.
“Just this week, having the confidence of playing that well I feel that maybe we are at the top that we can compete.”
And it’s that experience that will guide them down the road.
There are plenty of positives they can take from the week, Sippala said.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment,” she said.
“Sure there’s disappointment. You’re in that game and you lose by one point. But we did great and we’re proud of ourselves. We just have to keep going. We work really hard, go to the gym and practice all the time so if we just keep that up and we just keep rolling and get better.”
