Robyn Silvernagle is heading into the Saskatchewan provincial playdowns with some extra momentum.
Her Twin Rivers Curling Club rink captured their first win of the season on the World Curling Tour circuit Sunday as they picked up a 6-4 win over Regina’s Chantelle Eberle at the Boundary Ford Curling Classic in Lloydminster.
“I feel like we are starting to come together as a team and we are getting more into our groove,” Silvernagle said.
“I think we’re peaking at the right time, and that’s exactly what we wanted before the playdowns in January.”
The rink had a slightly different look to it last weekend as Edmonton’s Jessie Hunkin joined up with Silvernagle, second Dayna Demers and lead Kara Thevenot to fill in at third for the absent Jolene Campbell.
“Jolene’s heading off to Ottawa this weekend to be the fifth for Michelle Englot at the Olympic Trials, so she elected to take the Lloydminster event off, which we were totally fine with,” Silvernagle said.
“Dayna curled with Jessie a few years ago in Alberta and has stayed in touch with her ever since. She was pretty sure that Jessie wasn’t curling in Lloydminster that weekend and we all felt that she would be a good replacement for Jolene.”
After losing their opening game of the bonspiel to Biggar’s Brett Barber Friday night, the Silvernagle squad bounced back with two wins Saturday and earned a playoff spot with a 9-6 triumph over Grande Prairie’s Holly Scott in a ‘B’ final.
In the playoffs, they cruised to a 10-4 victory in the quarter-finals over Nancy Martin of Saskatoon and followed that up by defeating Mandy Seltzer of Balgonie by a score of 8-5 in the semifinals.
“We struggled a bit in that first game as we tried to figure out the ice and we were going up against a team that had already played one game, so that puts you at a bit of a disadvantage,” Silvernagle said.
“Once we got a handle on the ice, and I got my draw weight figured out, all four of us played really well on our way to the finals.”
In a championship contest that saw a number of twists and turns, Silvernagle recovered from giving up a steal of two in the seventh end by picking up two points of her own in the eighth and stealing a point off of Eberle in the ninth end to pick up the win.
“The steal in the ninth end helped to give us a bit of an extra cushion, but I don’t know if there was a real true turning point in the match,” Silvernagle said. “It was a really good game and both teams were making lots of great shots.
After making the quarter-finals at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Tier 2 Tour Challenge in Regina and the Colonial Square Ladies Classic in Saskatoon in September, the Silvernagle had gone through a bit of a rough patch heading into Lloydminster as they had missed out on the playoffs at events in Vernon, B.C., Portage la Prairie, Man. and Red Deer, Alta.
“We had a bit of a tough time there for sure, but that’s bound to happen when you bring in a new player [Campbell] to the rink as you can’t expect everything to go perfect,” Silvernagle said.
“We’ve been able to work the kinks out a little bit and we felt like were starting to get into more of our regular groove in Red Deer as we played well despite not making the playoffs.”
While it has yet to be confirmed by Curl Sask, the Silvernagle rink has clinched a spot in next month’s provincial playdowns in Melfort as a result of being one of the top three teams from Saskatchewan in the Canadian Team Ranking System standings that are put together by Curling Canada.
“We haven’t gotten a confirmation e-mail saying that we are in or not, but the challenge round is in North Battleford Friday so I’m sure we would have heard by now if we had to play in that,” Silvernagle joked.
“We don’t have any events before the provincials so we’re going to be practicing as much as we can around our Christmas schedules and playing a couple of exhibition games.”
Silvernagle finished second in last year’s provincial championship in Melville and reached the semifinals at the 2016 playdowns in Prince Albert.
