Team Northern Ontario looks to improve on last year’s Scotties success, feels ‘this is the team’ to win it all | CBC News

With the start of the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts just days away, Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville is hopeful this will be her year.

The McCarville rink — which also includes Kendra Lilly, Ashley Sippala, Sarah Potts, and coach Rick Lang — earned a spot in this year’s Scotties with a win at last month’s Northern Ontario Curling Association playdowns, earning the new designation of Team Northern Ontario in the process.

This will be McCarville’s 10th time playing in the national women’s curling championships. However, through all those appearances, the gold medal has eluded her (althuogh she’s come close, with two silvers and one bronze to her name).

But McCarville is hopeful the 2023 Scotties will be a bonspiel to remember.

“I’m really hopeful,” McCarville told CBC News on Tuesday. “These girls that I curl with, we’ve been together for a long time, and I feel like this is the team.”

“We meshed together so well,” she said. “We get along so well.”

“We’ve made some changes this year with a few different things, and I’m really hopeful that these changes are gonna make us take that extra step, and get that gold medal.”

While the turnaround time was quick — there were just over two weeks between the end of the northern Ontario playdowns and the start of the Scotties — McCarville and her team prepared as much as they could.

“We feel really good,” McCarville said. “We try to practice as much as we can, but we also have to do a little bit of life balance, because we all have full-time jobs and we have children and families to worry about as well.”

Stacked schedule 

And that preparation will no doubt come in handy, as the McCarville rink has a tough schedule.

Their first game is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Saturday, when McCarville’s team will take on Team Manitoba, which is skipped by Jennifer Jones.

Sunday, McCarville will hit the ice twice: they’ll play the Northwest Territories (skipped by Kerry Galusha) at 8:30 a.m., and then Team Ontario (skipped by Rachel Homan) at 6:30 p.m.

The full draw schedule is available on the Scotties website.

Jones and Homan are, of course, former Scotties champions. They’re also former world champions, and Jones has also won Olympic curling gold.

Galusha hasn’t won the Scotties, but she brings a wealth of experience with her to Kamloops: this will be her 20th appearance at the national bonspiel.

And while McCarville acknowledges her team is in a tough pool, that’s something she’s using as motivation.

“I feel like this is probably one of the best [Scotties] to win, because it is such a great field,” she said.

“I think any team can go out there and beat any other team,” she said. “You try to forget about the the names and how successful they are, and you just kind of play your game.”

One challenge McCarville said her team will have to overcome is the ice; the Scotties are taking place in an arena, as opposed to a curling club, and the McCarville rink doesn’t play on arena ice as often as some of the other teams competing in Kamloops.

“We don’t have that opportunity as much,” she said. “But at the same time, it’s different ice. Every time you go, it’s different ice.”

“If we pick up on that ice quickly, then we’re going to hopefully beat them,” McCarville said. “We’re great shooters, just like they’re great shooters.”

“We know we have to play well, and consistent, the whole entire time we’re there if we want to win it, so that’s the plan.”