SASKATOON — A capsule look at the nine women's teams entered in the Nov. 20-28 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon (team members listed skip to lead with home club location).
TEAM FLEURY
Tracy Fleury, Selena Njegovan, Liz Fyfe, Kristin MacCuish; East St. Paul, Man.
Ranked No. 1 in the world, Fleury won the Grand Slam season opener last month and reached the final at the most recent stop on the circuit. Chelsea Carey, who skipped her former team to the trials final in 2017 in Ottawa, will serve as alternate.
TEAM EINARSON
Kerri Einarson, Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard, Briane Meilleur; Gimli, Man.
The two-time reigning national champions will turn to Sweeting for advice on the trials experience. Sweeting skipped a different team to a fourth-place finish in 2017.
TEAM HOMAN
Rachel Homan, Emma Miskew, Sarah Wilkes, Joanne Courtney; Ottawa.
Homan would love another crack at the Games after missing the podium in 2018 at Pyeongchang. Wilkes has come on board at second since that Olympic appearance with Courtney moving to lead.
TEAM JONES
Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman, Lisa Weagle/Dawn McEwen; Winnipeg.
Now a five-player team with the addition of Weagle, Jones is looking to return to the Olympics for the first time since winning gold at the 2014 Sochi Games.
TEAM McCARVILLE
Krista McCarville, Kendra Lilly, Ashley Sippala, Sarah Potts; Thunder Bay, Ont.
McCarville secured a trials berth after posting remarkable back-to-back comeback wins in the pre-trials. She scored four points in the 10th end of a victory over Mackenzie Zacharias and rallied from a four-point deficit in a win over Jacqueline Harrison in the 'A' qualifier.
TEAM WALKER
Laura Walker, Kate Cameron, Taylor McDonald, Nadine Scotland; Edmonton.
Walker, who won a Canadian junior title in 2010, was a direct-entry event qualifier after coming up short at the pre-trials in 2013 and 2017. She won a national mixed doubles title with Kirk Muyres in 2018.
TEAM SCHEIDEGGER
Casey Scheidegger, Cary-Anne McTaggart, Jessie Haughian, Kristie Moore; Lethbridge, Alta.
Moore is the lone team member with Olympic experience, serving as an alternate on Cheryl Bernard's 2010 rink that won silver at the Vancouver Games. Scheidegger was 3-5 in her trials debut in 2017.
TEAM ROCQUE
Kelsey Rocque, Danielle Schmiemann, Dana Ferguson, Rachel Brown; Edmonton
The Ferguson-Brown front end helped power Chelsea Carey to a national title in 2019. Rocque and Schmiemann won a world junior title together in 2015.
TEAM HARRISON
Jacqueline Harrison, Allison Flaxey, Lynn Kreviazuk, Laura Hickey; Dundas, Ont.
Harrison is making her trials debut while Flaxey was a skip at the 2017 trials. Kreviazuk won gold at the 2007 Canada Winter Games on an Ontario team skipped by Rachel Homan.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2021.
Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
