The positive was a playoff appearance, yet again, for the Northern Ontario rink of Krista McCarville, Ashley Sippala and Sudburians Kendra Lilly and Jenny Gates. Who represented the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA) with pride at the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan this week.
The disappointment would come courtesy of falling short of the ultimate prize, beaten 9-5 by Rachel Homan and her Ontario rink in a game that was neck and neck through nine ends of play.
For a quartet (quintet if you include long-time member Sarah Potts, who gave birth to twins the week of the Scotties) that has struck a very healthy balance between life and sport, the results are nothing short of astounding.
Coming off a stretch that included silver medals (2016), a loss in the bronze medal game (2017), and a loss in the 3rd/4th battle in 2019, McCarville and company continue to rank among the elite teams in the country.
That said, they must clearly be growing tired of falling to Team Homan in the playoff round, with the Ottawa rink also besting the Northern Ontario crew in both the 2017 and 2019 playoff round.
The Thunder Bay/Sudbury connection overcame a surprising loss to Nunavut in Pool "A" action, posting a record of 5-2, second only to the Kerri Einarson Manitoba rink, and easily enough to slide comfortably into Championship round play.
Team McCarville continued to shine, winning three of four games against the best that Pool "B" had to offer, their final mark of 8-3 leaving them sitting all alone in fourth place, behind the front-running 9-2 trio of Manitoba, Team Wildcard (Jennifer Jones) and Ontario.
In other Sudbury Scotties connections of note, coach Amanda Gates and the Northwest Territories team that includes current NOSM student, Sarah Koltun, finished their preliminary round schedule with a record of 2-5, beating Newfoundland & Labrador (14-2) and the Yukon (9-5).
As for Sudbury skip Tracy Fleury and her Manitoba trio of Selena Njegovan, Liz Fyfe and Kristin MacCuish, consistently ranked among the top women's team in the world this year, suffice to note that she was beaten in the wildcard game by Jennifer Jones, and eliminated in the Manitoba provincial semi-final by Kerri Einarson, with both of those teams among the final three still standing heading into the last day of competition in Saskatchewan.
