MacPhee rink ready to go at Scotties (Journal)

P.E.I. rink eyes playoff berth at Canadian women’s curling championship

by Jason Simmonds [email protected]

Skip Robyn MacPhee releases a shot while lead Michelle McQuaid, left, and second stone Meaghan Hughes prepare to sweep. The action took place during the provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Community Complex in January. The MacPhee rink, which curls out of the Charlottetown Curling Complex, begins play at the Canadian women’s curling championship in St. Catharines, Ont., on Saturday night.

© Jason Simmonds/TC Media

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. – The Robyn MacPhee rink is exactly where they hoped they would be.

MacPhee, third stone Sarah Fullerton, second stone Meaghan Hughes, lead Michelle McQuaid and fifth player Rebecca Jean MacDonald will wear P.E.I.’s green and white colours at the 2017 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in St. Catharines, Ont.
“We are definitely excited to all return to the Scotties,” said Fullerton, who resides in Travellers Rest just outside of Summerside. “When we formed this team our goal was to be at the Scotties, and we are pretty pleased to have achieved that goal.”
The P.E.I. representatives from the Charlottetown Curling Complex open play at the Canadian women’s curling championship on Saturday night.
“Obviously, our big goal would be to make the playoffs,” said MacPhee, 33. “We want to come out and play well, and see where that takes us.”
Team MacPhee, which is in its first year together, went 4-1 (won-lost) in the modified triple-knockout format at the provincial Scotties in Summerside last month to earn P.E.I.’s berth in the nationals.
“We have been practising pretty much every day when it hasn’t been storming,” said MacPhee in discussing the team’s preparation. “We have played a few games, and have been at Naturally Fit training.
“We have kept our normal routine. We didn’t really need to change much with our preparation for provincials and our preparation for the Scotties.”

Season
Team MacPhee has put in a lot of hard work and travel all season, and Fullerton feels the rink has “prepared the best” they could to take on Canada’s top teams.
“We played a lot of events, we played on the World Curling Tour to get that opportunity to play some of the top teams and to play on the best ice conditions we could,” explained Fullerton, 25. “Here (Scotties) we will play on arena ice conditions, which is different than what we have back on P.E.I.
“We have prepared well, and we just want to take it one game at a time, and do what we can to bring our best performance.”

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