From Curling Canada, here is the Official Draw for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary, coming up February 19-28. Round robin games for Team PEI, skipped by Suzanne Birt, are highlighted in green. TSN/RDS2 plans to broadcast every Scotties draw this year.
Here’s a “Meet the Team” feature on Team Birt from Curling Canada:
(L-R): Suzanne Birt, Marie Christianson, Meaghan Hughes, Michelle McQuaid
PEI – BIRT
Charlottetown’s Suzanne Birt found herself in an odd situation prior to the Prince Edward Island provincial playdowns. Win or lose, she knew her team was headed to the Calgary bubble to compete at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
After Curling Canada released the selection criteria for the final Wild Card teams, it was obvious that Birt, Marie Christianson, Meaghan Hughes, and Michelle McQuaid would earn one of those spots based on their Canadian Team Ranking System ranking. Birt, of course, wanted to earn their berth the old fashioned way – by winning the provincial championship with this team for the third straight year.
In this case, it was a best-of-five series against the only other contender, Darlene London (Montague, PEI). Birt’s squad outscored their opponent 34-3 over the three games, which earned the skipper her 12th trip to the Scotties.
The two-time Canadian Junior champion has finished as high as third in the Scotties, but that was in her first appearance in 2003.
The team is coached by Mitch O’Shea and Kathy O’Rourke (a veteran of six Scotties – two as skip) will be the alternate.