A Carbon curler has earned her Alberta jacket, as Rebecca Pattison won the Albert junior curling championships on Sunday and will now represent her province in the M and M Canada junior curling championship.
The team, headed up by skip Nadine Chyz, Pattison as third, Jessie Scheidegger of Lethbridge as 2nd, and Kim Anderson as lead, will now play for Alberta in the Canada championship tournament on January 29. The semi-final and final rounds will be aired on television.
Pattison says the pressure on the team is high this year, as they finished fourth overall at last year’s Canada games, and the team is in their last year of play, all aged 20.
“I think we’re eyed to be the favourites because of what we did last year,” says Pattison, who’s been curling since she was 10. “Everyone is gunning for us this year, it’ll be a little bit harder playing this year with targets on our backs.”
The University of Calgary student went on an unbeaten round-robin run with her team during the provincials in Edmonton.
“I’m so proud,” says mom Shelley Pattison, adding that the Calgary team swept the Alberta championship for the first time in its history.
“It’s going to be a roller-coaster of emotions,” the Calgary Herald quoted skip Chyz on Monday.
“We just have to make sure we keep doing what we’re doing in practices, and try to prepare as best as we can for the national.”
If the team can pull off a national win at the tournament in late January, they’ll be jetting off to Scotland for the World junior championship.
Check TV listings for the scheduled broadcast of the championship, taking place in late January.