Alberta’s Selena Sturmay starts hot at Scotties Tournament of Hearts

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Being fairly new to the national finals, Selena Sturmay and her Alberta queens had a lot of questions ahead of the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Now, after a 4-0 start to the coveted curling championship, there’s only one thing on everyone’s mind…

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Can they continue like this?

“I don’t see us as a rookie team,” said a smiling Sturmay, looking confident in Canada amid the strongest start of the 18-track field at WinSport in Calgary, where they have great support from the home crowd.

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“I think I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have nerves here, and I don’t want to discredit the rookie story and stuff,” the jumper continued from Edmonton. “But I think we’re a really good team and we belong here. “We are ranked fifth in Canada (in the Canadian team ranking system) and I think we are here to prove it.”

And how.

Heading into Tuesday afternoon’s tie against Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges (3-1), no one proved better than Sturmay, third Danielle Schmiemann, second Dezaray Hawes and leader Paige Papley at this year’s Scotties.

The Saville Community Sports Center team opened with four straight wins, joining Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones and Ontario’s Rachel Homan with such a successful start to 10 finishes, putting it in thoughtful (championship) company in the annals of Alberta curling.

The last time a skip wore Alberta colors for the first time at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and started off with four straight wins, it turned into a winning week…

As in the Canadian queens of crowning glory stuff.

That was Chelsea Carey in 2016. Her rink of third Amy Nixon, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters, representing the Glencoe Club in Calgary, actually went 6-0 to open that championship in Grande Prairie, Alta. ., before lifting the hardware. after a final victory over Northern Ontario’s Krista McCarville.

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Three years later, Carey and Alberta, this time with third Sarah Wilkes, second Dana Ferguson and lead Rachelle Brown representing The Glencoe, won it all again, backed by a blistering 7-0 start at the 2019 Scotties in Sydney , New Scotland.

“It feels amazing,” Sturmay, 25, said of Alberta’s strong start to this year. “Coming into this, we wanted to get as many wins as possible and I think we’re doing a great job in that regard.

“I think we’ve been doing a very good job of detecting ice conditions,” Sturmay continued. “They are not always exactly the same from one draw to another. “I think my team and I have done a really good job of catching those little things, doing it quickly and making the necessary adjustments.”

Not bad at all for a team with very little experience in the Scots.

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Only Hawes has it from her time with BC’s Corryn Brown as runner-up at the 2020 and ’21 national championships.

“We’ve already asked Dez a million questions,” Sturmay said. “When you get to the Scots, they are a different kind of beast in themselves.

“You come to a competition like this and you don’t know exactly what to expect,” the jumper continued. “No two Scottish or national competitions are the same. But she was able to shed a lot of light on what to expect behind the scenes. She was able to help us with everything else that comes with Scotties, not just curling.

“So she’s been a great addition to our team.”

The 27-year-old native of New Westminster, BC, who became a Calgarian last summer, has also proven to be excellent at the moment, with a shooting accuracy of 83% in 10 draws to earn a high score among the runners-up in the tournament .

“The biggest advice I can give is to just enjoy the moment here,” said Hawes, Calgary’s only member of Team Alberta. “You are never guaranteed to return to this event. So make the most of it. It goes by super fast and try to have fun while doing it.”

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Fun?

That’s not a problem when you win like they do.

“It definitely puts us in a great place just moving forward and thinking about the playoffs,” Sturmay added. “However, we just want to take it one game at a time, and we know we have a couple of tough games ahead of us. “You can’t look too far ahead.”

EXTRA ENDS

Kerry Galusha (1-3) of the Northwest Territories earned her first victory in these Scots in historic fashion on Tuesday. The Yellowknife Curling Club’s her rink rallied from a 7-0 hole in the final second to steal a 10-9 decision from Ontario’s Danielle Inglis (2-3). It was the second-largest comeback in Canadian women’s championship history and the first since 1970, when at the Stampede Corral in Calgary, BC’s Donna Clark fought her way from a 10-0 deficit in six sets to outlast Marie Toole of Prince Edward Island…Ontario. Rachel Homan joined Jennifer Jones atop the Group B standings at 4-0 earlier Tuesday with an 8-6 victory over Kate Cameron’s Manitoba team (2-2)… In the other morning matches, BC’s Clancy Grandy (4-1) edged New Brunswick’s Melissa. Nova Scotia’s Adams (1-4) 8-3 and Heather Smith (2-3) defeated Yukon’s Bayly Scoffin (0-4) 12-5… Rounding out Tuesday afternoon’s action was: Kerri Einarson ( 4-1) of Canada against Skylar of Saskatchewan. Ackerman (3-2); Brown vs. Kaitlyn Lawes of Manitoba (1-3); and Stacie Curtis (0-4) of Newfoundland and Labrador faced Jane DiCarlo (0-5) of Prince Edward Island… In the draw of the night: Homan and Jones faced off in the main match of the day; Galusha plays Cameron; Inglis confronts Adams; and Grandy take on Scoffin… Wednesday’s action on WinSport begins with Draw 13 at 8:30 a.m. MT, followed by Draw 14 at 1:30 p.m. MT and Draw 15 at 6:30 p.m. MT.

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