Female curlers rock the house
February 17, 2012
The Zone 8 girls’ curling rink of skip Courtney Rossing, third Carley Wolfe, second Riese Rycroft and lead Ashlyn Wozny had no set goals heading into the 2012 Alberta Winter Games.
“We thought (winning) was realistic, but we didn’t make a goal to medal,” said Rossing. “All we wanted to do was go in and curl the best that we could, and whatever happens, happens.”
That said, winning is always in the back of any competitor’s mind and for the Rossing rink, winning came easy on the weekend.
They finished with four wins in five games, including a victory in the biggest one of all – the gold-medal match against Kathleen Dunbar of Zone 5.
The competition featured mostly unfamiliar rinks to Rossing, with Dunbar being one of two exceptions.
“We only knew two other teams in this competition,” said Rossing. “We played Kathleen when she was on a different team, but most of the girls on her usual team are too old for this tournament. But we have played (her) maybe one or two times and had really close games both times.”
The gold medal game was the second meeting of the weekend between the two rinks.
The teams met in a tight contest Friday afternoon, where Rossing threw an angle tap-back with her hammer in the eighth end to score two for a 7-5 victory.
Their second confrontation wasn’t close. Rossing won the gold-medal game 9-3.
“We curled really good, we curled our best,” said Rossing of the gold medal match, adding that the turning point came early. “We got three in the first end. So right out of the gates we got our three and we were just strong from there on out.”
The game only lasted seven ends.
While Rossing said there were no pre-set goals, she did have a personal stake in these games. As a 16-year-old, (the other three are all 14) this was Rossing’s second time skipping a team at the Games. She finished seventh of the eight zones in the 2010 competition, so this was her shot at redemption.
“Definitely – I thought that since this was my last year, we really needed to go strong and go for the gold,” said Rossing.
Should everything work out well, Wolfe, Rycroft and Wozny could return in 2014, as defending champions, albeit with a new skip.
In the meantime, Rossing, Wolfe and Wozny now set their sights on the Arctic Winter Games. Kendra Miskolczi will replace Rycroft at second for the Whitehorse tournament. The Arctic Winter Games run March 4-10.
Rossing is happy that the Arctic Games come so quickly after the conclusion of the Alberta Winter Games.
“We really are (curling our best right now),” she said. “We have been working really hard all season and this has been the best weekend we have had so far.
“We are all really excited to go (up) there and have another great experience like at Albertas.”