CALGARY — A team-by-team look at the field for the Canadian women's curling championship Feb. 16-25 at Calgary's WinSport International Arena. Teams seeded via Curling Canada's Canadian Team Rankings system. Team members listed from third to lead.
POOL A
Kerri Einarson - Canada
Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard, Briane Harris.
Gimli Curling Club, Manitoba
Winner of four in a row, no team has won five straight national women's curling titles.
Kaitlyn Lawes - Manitoba champion
Selena Njegovan, Jocelyn Peterman, Kristin MacCuish.
Fort Rouge Curling Club, Winnipeg
No. 4 women's team in Canada led by an Olympic champion in both team and mixed doubles, although Lawes is skipping a Hearts team for just the second time in her career. Her foursome lost out in a tiebreaker last year.Â
Selena Sturmay - Alberta champion
Danielle Schmiemann, Dezaray Hawes, Paige Papley
Saville Community Sports Centre, Edmonton
Sturmay, Schmiemann and Papley make their Hearts debut in Calgary. Hawes previously played for B.C.'s Corryn Brown. Sturmay stole two points in the 10th end to edge last year's Alberta champ Kayla Skrlik 6-5 in the provincial final.
Corryn Brown - B.C.
Erin Pincott, Jennifer Armstrong, Samantha Fisher.
Kamloops Curling Club
The withdrawal of Nunavut from this year's national championship opened the door for another entry from the national rankings and No. 8 Brown was the recipient. Brown returns to a third Hearts after finishing outside the top six in both 2020 and 2021. Her team lost 11-3 to Clancy Grandy in B.C. final.
Skylar Ackerman - Saskatchewan champion
Ashley Thevenot, Taylor Stremick, Kaylin Skinner
Nutana Curling Club, Saskatoon.
Ackerman, 22, was Saskatchewan's alternate last year in Kamloops, but she and her three teammates will all compete in their first Hearts. They defeated Nancy Martin 10-9 in an extra end to win Saskatchewan.
Krista McCarville - Northern Ontario champion
Andrea Kelly, Kendra Lilley, Ashley Sippala
Fort William Curling Club, Thunder Bay
A perennial Final Four team, McCarville is chasing a first title after reaching the 2016 and 2022 finals. She added veteran New Brunswick curler Andrea Kelly to her lineup last year at third and operated as a five-curler team this season with Sara Potts.
Laurie St-Georges - Quebec champion
Jamie Sinclair, Emily Riley, Kelly Middaugh.
Glenmore Curling Club, Dollard-Des-Ormeaux, Que.
Former U.S. national champion Sinclair moved back to Canada — she's a former bantam teammate of Rachel Homan's in Ottawa — to play third for St-Georges skipping Quebec a fourth straight year at Hearts. St-George was eliminated in a tiebreaker last year.
Jane DiCarlo - Prince Edward Island champion
Veronica Mayne (fourth stones), Sabrina Smith, Whitney Jenkins.Â
Crapaud Community Curling Club
The four rookies are University of Prince Edward Island curling team alum. DiCarlo and Mayne competed in three U Sports championships together with a best result of fourth in 2015.
Stacie Curtis - Newfoundland and Labrador champion
Erica Curtis, Julie Hynes, Camille Burt.
St John's Curling Club.
Curtis will skip N.L., for a seventh time in her career. Third Erica Curtis and her brother Stephen Trickett will both compete in national championships this year. Stephen plays third for Andrew Symonds bound for the Brier in Regina in March.
POOL B
Rachel Homan - Ontario
Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes.
Under new Curling Canada qualification rules, Homan gained early entry to 2024 Hearts by virtue of a national ranking of No. 2 at the end of the 2022-23 season. Three-time champ Homan returns to full skip duties after throwing fourth stones and letting Fleury call shots last season.Â
Jennifer Jones - ManitobaÂ
Karlee Burgess, Emily Zacharias, Lauren Lenentine.
St Vital/Altona curling clubs, Winnipeg.
Also earned early entry under new rules by finishing third in national rankings in 2022-23. Six-time champ Jones, 49, says this season is her last in women's team curling. No woman has won seven Canadian women's titles.
Danielle Inglis - Ontario champion
Kira Brunton, Calissa Daly, Cassandra de Groot
Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club
Curling Canada's co-ordinator of social media and web content takes a hiatus in Calgary because Inglis will be busy skipping Ontario for the first time her career. She beat Carly Howard 8-7 in the provincial final and reached the semifinal of January's Perth Masters in Scotland.Â
Kate Cameron - Manitoba
Meghan Walter, Taylor McDonald, Mackenzie Elias.
Granite Curling Club, Winnipeg.
Lost the Manitoba semifinal, but enter Hearts as Canada's highest-ranked team not already qualified this season at No. 7. Cameron skips for the first time in seven Hearts appearances. Kelsey Rocque replaces McDonald, who is eight months into her pregnancy, in Calgary.
Clancy Grandy - B.C. champion
Kayla MacMillan, Lindsay Dubue, Sarah Loken.
Vancouver Curling Club
Reached six-team championship round in 2024 in Grandy's Hearts debut. Won Perth Masters in Scotland and went undefeated in B.C. women's provincials.
Kerry Galusha - Northwest Territories champion
Jo-Ann Rizzo (fourth stones), Margot Flemming, Sarah Koltun.
Galusha, who throws lead stones, appears in her 17th "official" Hearts not counting the short-lived pre-qualification tournaments in 2015 and 2016 or her two years as an alternate. She skipped the first NWT team to reach the playoffs in 2022 in Thunder Bay, Ont.Â
Heather Smith - Nova Scotia champion
Jill Brothers (fourth stones), Marie Christianson, Erin Carmody
Halifax Curling Club
Coached by six-time Canadian champion skip Colleen Jones, Smith edged 2023 Hearts semifinalist Christina Black 6-4 in an extra end to win Nova Scotia. Smith will skip Nova Scotia for the first time since 2014 when her team went 4-7.
Melissa Adams - New Brunswick champion
Jacklyn Crandall, Molli Ward, Kendra Lister
Capital Winter Club, Fredericton
Former world and Canadian junior champion Adams will skip N.B. at the Hearts for the third time in her career. Adams beat Sylvie Quillian 7-4 in the provincial final.
Bayly Scoffin - Yukon champion
Kerry Foster, Raelyn Helston, Kimberly Tuor
Whitehorse Curling Club
The Scoffin siblings lead Yukon into both the Hearts and Brier this year as brother Thomas will skip the territory in the men's national championship in Regina. Bayly is in her second year of college curling at Calgary's SAIT.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2024.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
