After winning her second straight provincial Scotties title as the lead for Robyn Silvernagle’s rink from North Battleford on Tuesday, it was back to reality the following day for Prince Albert’s Kara Thevenot.
“Once you get back home, real life starts up again with work and family,” Thevenot said on Thursday. “There is still a lot to prepare for before we got the Scotties, but there are less travel plans and less to do ahead of time this time around.”
Thevenot, who also plays with Stefanie Lawton and Jesse Hunkin, will also have the chance to represent Saskatchewan in her home province as this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be held in Moose Jaw from Feb. 15-23.
“It was definitely a sweet feeling to know that we’d have the opportunity to play at home, “ Thevenot said. “We got a bit of a taste of that last year at the Grand Slam events in North Battleford and Saskatoon, especially at the one in North Battleford as it definitely felt like a hometown crowd out there.
“That’s something that we all thrive off of and we’re looking forward to that in Moose Jaw. Stefanie has been through that before when the Scotties were last there in 2015, so we’ve gotten some insight from her as to what will be going on.”
Lawton finished in fourth place as the skip for Saskatchewan five years ago.
The Silvernagle rink, who finished in third place at last year’s Scotties in Sydney, N.S., went a perfect 5-0 at the provincial playdowns in Melville.
After picking up wins over Shalon Fleming of Regina, Penny Barker of Moose Jaw and Michelle Englot of Regina in the ‘A’ event, the team advanced to the final with a 7-6 triumph over Ashley Howard of Saskatoon in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff game on Monday night.
“We just stay patient and waited for our opportunities,” Thevenot said. “We made sure that we had a good feel for the ice and took our chances when we had them.
“I think the experience of being a second-year team together helped as well, along with the fact that we had that experience of being in the finals already.”
The rink’s approach to the game proved to be a major factor to their success in Tuesday’s final as they picked up an 8-5 victory over Sherry Anderson’s rink from Saskatoon.
“The three-ender in the fourth end was probably the difference,” Thevenot said.
“It was looking like we were going to get forced to a single point or we would have to make a double takeout to get a blank, but Stefanie made a great freeze on her last shot and Sherry ended up making a mistake on her first. We got Robyn’s first rock into a good spot and Sherry made another mistake on her last, which gave us the chance to get three points.”
The team had entered the event with some momentum on their side as well as they reached the quarter-final round at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Boost National event in Conception Bay South, N.L. before Christmas.
“We had a great run there and that came from playing our game,” Thevenot said.
“We had decided before that event that we weren’t going to be playing at the Slam event in Yorkton (which was held earlier this month) so that we could focus on the provincials. We had spent a lot of time on the road this fall, so we felt that some rest would be better and it would also give us the chance to spend time with our family and at our jobs. We wanted to be fully prepared for the provincials, and it seems like it paid off.”
The Silvernagle rink is now waiting to find out which pool they will be placed in for the Scotties, as the winners of the British Columbia, Manitoba, Northern Ontario and Ontario playdowns will be determined this weekend.
Before they travel to Moose Jaw, a send-off party for the team will be held in North Battleford at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7 at the Twin Rivers Curling Club.
