Meet the Scotties Teams: Prince Edward Island (from Curling Canada)

The 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts comes to Moose Jaw, Sask.’s, Mosaic Place this Feb. 15-23. Get to know the teams that will be competing for the Scotties crown this year.

Prince Edward Island

Suzanne Birt will make her 11th – and second straight – appearance at the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, representing the province of Prince Edward Island.

(L-R): Suzanne Birt, Marie Christianson, Meaghan Hughes, Michelle McQuaid

Birt and her Montague Curling Rink foursome of vice-skip Marie Christianson, second Meaghan Hughes and lead Michelle McQuaid defeated the Veronica Smith team from the Summerside Silver Fox club 8-1 in seven ends, to repeat as P.E.I. Scotties champions.

The event was played at the winning team’s home club as the veteran Birt (nee Gaudet) used a critical five-ender in the sixth end and added a steal of one in the seventh for the victory. Birt was up just 2-1 before the pivotal sixth.

Birt had claimed the A and C events in the modified triple-knockout provincial event and Smith had claimed the B event to set up the final. Smith would have required two straight wins over Birt to claim the P.E.I. championship.

Birt – the former 2001 World Junior champion who then earned her first P.E.I. women’s crown back in 2003 – downed Smith 10-4 in the previous year’s provincial final. Smith’s 2020 foursome included vice-skip Sabrina Smith, second Emily Gray and lead Whitney Jenkins.

This will be Birt’s second appearance at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts since 2016 after taking breaks in 2017 and 2018, before making her successful return in 2019. Hughes and McQuaid were members of the successful 2017 and 2018 provincial-winning teams skipped by Robyn McPhee.

Tickets for the 2020 Scotties are available in various packages online at https://www.ticketrocket.co/search/events/1/all-events?searchText=scotties or at the Mosaic Place box office, or by calling  (306) 624-2050.

Click to read this story at Curling Canada.

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