Photos by Robert Wilson
Left: Skip Jenn Hanna calls a shot from the house. Right: Skip Rachel Homan throws a rock. Hanna defeated Homan in an upset victory earlier this week in the Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Brampton. An Ottawa Curling Club rink skipped by Jenn Hanna has earned a birth in the national women’s championships next month in Alberta.
The win was an upset victory over fellow Ottawa Curling Club member Rachel Homan’s team in the final game of the Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Jan. 24.
An incredible 15 curlers from the Centretown-based Ottawa Curling Club and Rideau Curling Club competed in some of their toughest battles this season in the provincials held in Brampton Jan. 18-24. The event wrapped up Sunday with a dramatic championship match between the two Ottawa rinks.
There were 10 teams in the tournament, including three teams with exclusively Ottawa players and six teams that had at least one Ottawa-area member.
OCC’s world-class skip Homan and her team of Emma Miskew, Joanne Courtney and Lisa Weagle led the round-robin scoreboard with an impressive 8-1 record before heading into the championship match. Homan and her team were favoured to win the provincials given their current status ranked as best in the world.
Another OCC skip, Erin Morrissey, and her teammates Lynsey Longfield, Erica Hopson and Jen Ahde, had a record of 2-7 at the end of the round-robin. Morrissey and her team didn’t have enough wins to move into Saturday’s quarter-finals, ending their run at the provincials.
“It was a great experience even though our results weren’t quite what we hoped for,” said Morrissey. “We hoped to get a few more W’s in there, but for our first year as a team making provincials, we’re really proud of that.”
Jenn Hanna, Stephanie Hanna, Karen Sagle and Brit O’Neill of Team Hanna posted a 6-3 record in the tournament’s preliminary play, securing a spot in the quarter-finals.
After defeating Julie Tippin’s rink 7-3 and Jacqueline Harrison’s team 6-5, Hanna and her team moved on to the finals to compete against Team Homan.
In a surprise outcome, Team Hanna outscored Team Homan with a 10-8 victory in Sunday’s championship match.
“As a first year team together we just really wanted to take it one game at a time and see if we could come home with a winning record,” said Karen Sagle, lead for Team Hanna.
The two teams battled it out for eight ends, but with Hanna getting an early lead it was hard for Homan and her team to catch up.
“We got a couple uncharacteristic misses out of Rachel and that helped along the way,” said Sagle.
The provincial event is a stepping stone to bigger things for the curlers. The tournament’s winning rink moves on as Team Ontario to represent the province in the biggest women’s curling event in Canada, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
This year, the national Scotties will be held in Grand Prairie, Alta., from Feb. 20-28.
This will be Team Hanna’s first year together going to the Scotties not only representing Ontario. Hanna and lead Stephanie Hanna last competed in the national Tournament of Hearts back in 2005.
For Sagle and Brit O’Neil, this will be their first time ever attending the Canadian championship.
“There’s a little bit of pressure that goes with it because we want to do our province proud, but we’re excited for the opportunity and we’re excited that we’re getting there,” Sagle said. “We’ve just got to take it one game at a time and hopefully we’ll get some wins out there,” she added.
“It means a lot that all the curlers from the Ottawa area call the Ottawa Curling Club home, keeping the quality of curling at the Ottawa high — and we couldn’t be more proud,” Tom Sinclair, president of the Ottawa Curling Club, said ahead of the provincial championships.
The men’s provincial championships will be held in Brantford in the second week of February. The winner of that event will move on as Team Ontario to the Tim Hortons Brier National Championship in March, held in Ottawa this year at TD Place at Lansdowne Park.