Out of the 60 teams that competed at the Pinty鈥檚 Grand Slam of Curling鈥檚 Tour Challenge event at Evraz Place in Regina last week, Robyn Silvernagle and her teammates had the longest journey to get into the playoffs.
Following four round-robin games, the North Battleford-based rink had to win a pair of winner-take-all tiebreaker contests just to reach the quarter-final Saturday afternoon, where they ended up losing to eventual champion Kerri Einarson of Winnipeg by a score of 6-4.
鈥淎ll in all, it was a really cool experience and we were all excited to be playing in this event,鈥� Silvernagle said. 鈥淏eing part of a Grand Slam of Curling event is something you strive for as a play and this was a goal of our team for awhile now.
鈥淎ny time you can play on arena ice is something that we want to take full advantage of. The Scotties and our provincial playdowns will both be in arenas this year, so to have that opportunity to get that out of the way early in the season is a good thing.鈥�
Silvernagle, who is joined on her rink by third Jolene Campbell, second Dayna Demers and lead Kara Thevenot, entered the event in Regina after just missing out on the playoffs at the Spider Performance Icebreaker in Winnipeg two weeks earlier.
They started off the Tour Challenge with a 9-5 win over Anna Sidorova of Russia Tuesday, but dropped a 7-5 decision to Switzerland鈥檚 Binia Feltscher on Wednesday and a 4-2 affair to Scotland鈥檚 Hannah Fleming on Thursday to fall to 1-2.
Entering a must-win situation, Silvernagle defeated Regina鈥檚 Chantelle Eberle by a score of 6-3 Friday morning to finish the round-robin at 2-2.
鈥淲e played really well in the first game against Sidorova as we battled back and thought right to the bitter end,鈥� Silvernagle said. 鈥淭hat was the same approach we had against Feltscher, even though it didn鈥檛 go our way.
鈥淲e weren鈥檛 quite as sharp on Thursday, especially when it came to our rock placement, so we talked about that as a team before we played Friday and we did a much better job of that through the rest of the weekend.鈥�
The rink would defeat Saskatoon鈥檚 Nancy Martin by a score of 5-4 in their first tiebreaker game Friday night before following that up with a 7-5 win over Calgary鈥檚 Nadine Scotland the following morning to clinch a playoff spot.
鈥淚 think we only have played in one tiebreaker game before so that was a bit different,鈥� Silvernagle said. 鈥淚t felt like a bit of a marathon there for a few hours.
鈥淲e dug pretty deep and played hard in those two tiebreakers. We played well against Einarson and we were disappointed that we didn鈥檛 capitalize on our chances, but that鈥檚 the way things go sometimes.鈥�
The first two events of the season also marked the first time that Campbell, who skipped Saskatchewan鈥檚 team at the 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, had curled with the team after joining the group in the spring.
鈥淚 feel like we鈥檝e been able to pick up something from each game and building on it,鈥� Campbell said. 鈥淩obyn鈥檚 a great skip and this was a team that鈥檚 been on the rise over the last couple of years, so when they asked me if I wanted to play with them it was a no-brainer.鈥�
鈥淪he鈥檚 been an awesome addition to our team,鈥� Silvernagle added. 鈥淗er calmness and her experience has really been noticeable already. Jolene鈥檚 a super smart player, and since she was a skip before, she鈥檚 someone I look up to as I can pretty much ask her anything during the course of a game and she鈥檒l have an answer.鈥�
The Silvernagle rink will be staying in the province for their next World Curling Tour event, as they鈥檒l take part in the Colonial Square Ladies Classic in Saskatoon from Sept. 22-25.
鈥淓very point we can get during the course of the season is helpful so we can get our spot straight into the provincials,鈥� Campbell said.
鈥淗owever, at this early point of the year, our main focus is more about building as a team, figuring out how we communicate and learning how you play together as you compete at these events.鈥�
Einarson, who defeated Calgary鈥檚 Chelsea Carey in the final, earned a spot at the Masters鈥� Grand Slam of Curling event in Lloydminster next month with her victory.
Jason Gunnlaugson took home the Tier II men鈥檚 title with an 8-7 win over fellow Winnipeg skip William Lyburn.
Over in the Tier I event, which was televised nationally on Sportsnet, Brad Gushue of Newfoundland won the men鈥檚 title in a 9-1 romp over Steffen Walstad of Norway.
The women鈥檚 final was a much more dramatic affair as Edmonton鈥檚 Val Sweeting stole a point in the final end to defeat Sweden鈥檚 Anna Hasselborg 6-5.
