Brown pleased with position through five games at Scotties

Resting up for playoff push

Photo: Curling Canada

B.C. skip Corryn Brown calls the shots in weekend action at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Her Kamloops curling club rink sits second in Pool A halfway through round robin play.

Tuesday is a day off for Team B.C. at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont., and the Kamloops Curling Club rink is very happy with its position with three round-robin games remaining.

“We’re really excited,” skip Corryn Brown told Castanet Kamloops on Tuesday morning.

“If you told us at the beginning of the week that we’d be 4-1 after five games, I think we would be happy with that.”

B.C.’s lone defeat came on Saturday, when they fell 9-8 to Kayla Skrlik of Alberta — a game that came down to the final shot.

“Even the game that we lost we arguably probably should have won that one,” Brown said. “We let it slip away a bit, but we were overall really happy with how we played, and we made sure that we had a good bounce back game after that one.”

'One game at a time'

Brown’s rink is competing at Scotties for the fourth time, never having placed higher than sixth. She said it’s been good vibes so far in Thunder Bay.

“There’s been a really calm energy about the team,” she said. “We’ve gone about our business. We’ve taken it one game at a time, one shot at a time. We’re not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Brown said the team — lead Samantha Fisher, second Sarah Koltun, third Erin Pincott and alternate Kristen Ryan — is relaxing on Tuesday and making the most of the rest day.

“We’re hanging around, getting some laundry done, getting some groceries — just kind of getting our affairs in order and relaxing, taking advantage of the time off,” she said.

"I have a massage in a couple hours here, so I’m excited for that. We're just trying to rest the body a little bit.”

Next up: Homan

The ladies will have a good test on Wednesday morning, when B.C. is slated to take on Rachel Homan’s Team Canada — the top-ranked women's curling team on the planet and the defending Scotties champs. At 4-0, Canada is the only team above B.C. in Pool A standings as of Tuesday morning.

“Looking at the schedule, playing Rachel Homan, top ranked in the world, defending champions — you look at that one and you know you’re going to have to bring your best,” Brown said.

"But we are taking each game the same. We know that this is the best of the best in the country and every team is gunning for you."

Pool play wraps up on Thursday.

The 18-team field is divided into two pools with the top three in each advancing to the championship round. The four Page playoff teams will emerge from that group of six.

The victor crowned Feb. 23 will represent Canada at the world championship, which gets underway on March 15 in South Korea.