Yukon and Quebec leaving Scotties winless, but with plenty of experience

It’s always disappointing to leave a championship like the Scotties Tournament of Hearts with only losses, and Team Yukon skip Hailey Birnie and Team Québec skip Noémie Verreault both agree that just being here was worth the time. 

"We're really happy to be here and yes, it would've been nice to come off with a couple of wins, but I would say that we had some really great games," said Birnie.

It was a tough final game to stomach for Birnie and Team Yukon, who faced off against Ontario’s Rachel Homan in their final draw on Wednesday afternoon, but they certainly held their own until the last few ends. 

Homan snagged three points in the sixth end to creep ahead, and while Birnie, third Chelsea Duncan, second Gabrielle Plonka and lead Kimberly Tuor held on to take the game into its tenth end, it wasn’t quite enough. 

But, as Birnie pointed out, the scoreboard doesn’t always tell the whole story. Team Yukon certainly had some highs and lows throughout their week, which the match against Ontario really showed.

“This game is actually a great example of how we’ve made a lot of great shots and we’ve actually had a lot of fantastic games [this week],” said Birnie, following the final draw. “We had a solid game and we did lose it at some parts where we had to regroup and refocus, and I feel like in this game we were able to do that when we started to fall apart.”

Naturally, a string of losses like this one is hardly ideal but Birnie feels good about the show of ability that Team Yukon put forward. 

“I felt like [my team] came out with great attitudes every single day, but competitive as well, and really put their best foot forward,” said Birnie. “We've uncovered a lot of areas to work on, but we've also uncovered a lot of areas that we feel confident that we can work on.”

Team Yukon is already looking forward to taking a breather and enjoying the rest of their week off and will have to make some team decisions in the future.

"I think the next step is to take a little break," said Birnie. "This is this team's first year together, so we've got some decisions to make I think as a team and also as individuals, to see where people's lives are going and kind of go from there."

Verreault was unavailable following Team Quebec’s final draw, but the team gave a great fight throughout their game against Team Nunavut and Lori Eddy on Wednesday night, unfortunately finishing at the bottom of what spectators have been calling the Pool of Death.