CurlingZone: Brown leads field heading into BC Scotties

Defending provincial champions Corryn Brown (Photo: Andrew Klaver/Curling Canada) are the front runners heading into the 2022 Scotties BC Women's Championship.

By: Cameron Sallaj

Following the cancellation of the 2021 BC women's championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown will look to defend her provincial title from 2020 this week in Kamloops.

Brown, with third Erin Pincott, second Dezaray Hawes, and lead Samantha Fisher, have been the leaders in British Columbia for the past couple of seasons. The team ranks 13th on the Canadian Team Rankings System (CTRS) standings, with the next closest ranked team at 39th.

Team Brown has played in seven events during the 2021-22 season, qualifying for the playoffs in four of them. They got out to a fast start, however, beginning at the Alberta Curling Series: Leduc, where they went undefeated to win the event. They next lost in the semifinal of the Alberta Curling Series: Saville Shoot-Out. The team had a disappointing finish at the Home Hardware Pre-Trials, where they lost in the final qualification game to Jacqueline Harrison. Team Brown lost in the quarterfinals at the Vesta Energy Red Deer Curling Classic in their latest event.

The team won the 2020 BC Scotties with an extra end steal against Sarah Wark in the championship final to earn their first trip to the Scotties. The Brown rink then finished in sixth with a 5-6 at the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Moose Jaw, Sask. They were then appointed to represent BC at the 2021 Scotties in the Calgary bubble, where they went 4-4 in the round-robin, failing to advance to the playoffs.

Team Brown will have some competition at the provincial championship, with the second-seeded team being the Kayla MacMillan rink out of Vancouver.

MacMillan and her team of third Jody Maskiewich, second Lindsay Dubue and lead Sarah Loken have found some success in their five tour events this season, though they have only managed to qualify for the playoffs in one. In their events, the team has had close games with the likes of Jennifer Jones, Jamie Sinclair, and Mackenzie Zacharias. In their most recent event, the DEKALB Superspiel, they made it all the way to the final before losing to Amber Holland.

The team rattled off impressive wins against Chelsea Carey, Beth Peterson, Irene Schori, and Darcy Robertson to reach the final. Although they had a slow start, Team MacMillan proved at the DEKALB Superspiel why they will be contenders in the BC Scotties this upcoming week.

Another team to look out for is Mary-Anne Arsenault's team out of Kelowna. After spending the majority of her career in Nova Scotia, Arsenault made the move west following her retirement and linked up with Kelly Scott's former team of third Jeanna Schraeder, second Sasha Carter and lead Renee Simons. Team Arsenault has only played in two events so far this season, but they were able to reach the final of one of them, the Sunset Rach Kelowna Double Cash, where they lost to Kaila Buchy 7-6.

Five other rinks will compete in the BC Scotties this week in Kamloops: Shawna Jensen (New Westminster), Diane Gushulak (New Westminster), Taylor Reese-Hansen (Kitimat), Shiella Cowan (Vancouver), and Sarah Wark (Abbotsford).

The BC men's and women's provincials will get underway Tuesday, January 4th at the McArthur Island Curling Club in Kamloops. Games throughout the week will be streamed on Curl BC's YouTube Channel. Both events will be played in a triple knockout format which will qualify four women's teams and four men's teams for the playoff round.

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