Peterson out to prove her team has what it takes to win Scotties No. 4-ranked team motivated to show they can curl with top guns By: Taylor Allen Posted: 6:17 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024 Last Modified: 6:42 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024 Updates

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MORDEN — It almost feels silly to suggest a team such as Beth Peterson’s is flying under the radar at this week’s Manitoba women’s curling provincials.

It was three years ago the Assiniboine product finished in fifth place at the Canadian Scotties after snagging the third and final wild-card spot.

When you’re not ranked Top 10 nationally, or don’t have a calendar filled with Grand Slam events, it can be easy to get overlooked in this province.

Peterson, who’s ranked 20th in the Canadian Team Ranking System and predominantly stuck to the Manitoba Curling Tour (MCT) this season, is the No. 4 seed in Morden this week behind Kaitlyn Lawes, Kate Cameron and Jolene Campbell.

The 12-team event kicked off Wednesday at the Access Event Centre and runs through Sunday.

“That doesn’t affect us too much. We’re happy to not be in the spotlight and just do our thing,” said Peterson after opening provincials with a convincing 10-2 win over Emma Jensen in the morning draw. The afternoon draw was a much different story as they were upset 13-1 by Manitoba’s under-18 champion Shaela Hayward.

“Yeah, we may not be on the top, we might not be at all the slams, but we’re a really good contender at provincials and we’re happy with where we’re at.”

A big reason for that is the addition of third Kelsey Rocque — a two-time world junior curling champion skip out of Alberta. Peterson, second Katherine Doerksen and lead Melissa Kurz needed help as long time third Jenna Loder has been on medical leave.

“Yeah, we may not be on the top, we might not be at all the slams, but we’re a really good contender at provincials and we’re happy with where we’re at.”–Beth Peterson

Rocque, 29, now calls Carberry home as she’s engaged to one of Manitoba’s top men’s players: Braden Calvert.

When she came on board, the team had to take some time to decide who would throw the last rocks as they suddenly found themselves with two accomplished skips. With Rocque being the only one living outside of Winnipeg, it made the most sense to stick with Peterson.

“It was a battle, honestly. It was back and forth,” said Peterson.

“We’d like to have a little more success on our team, and that little bug gets in your ear and you’re thinking ‘Maybe Kelsey being skip and me being third is the way to go,’ but I wanted to stick it out. Ultimately, I asked Kelsey if she’d be OK if I skipped and she has been an awesome third. We both knew sweeping was going to be a battle for one of us, but we’ve had no issues and we’re really happy.”

Rocque lost the Alberta Scotties final to Chelsea Carey in 2019 and to Laura Walker in 2020. Rocque went on to spare at 2020 nationals with Walker but hasn’t been back since.

Peterson just missed out on the provincial semifinal in 2023 after losing a tiebreaker to Meghan Walter.

“I thought it was a really good opportunity and I was looking for kind of a fresh start and a little bit of a change. I was excited to play third and kind of challenge myself in that new position,” said Rocque.

“Beth has a lot of confidence and I have a lot of trust in her to throw that last rock and make those shots. I think we both bring different perspectives and fresh perspectives and that can never hurt you.”

Earlier this month, Team Peterson won the MCT championship at the Heather Curling Club. They also claimed the MCT Shootout in September, reached a pair of semi-finals, and made it to the quarterfinals of the Red Deer Curling Classic before losing to the No.1 team in the country, Ontario’s Rachel Homan.

“I think there’s merit in playing in your home province and playing on tricky ice so you’re forced to look at different things, strategy and throws. We have a lot of great teams outside of the top however many we have,” said Peterson.

“Yes, it would be great to play (Grand Slams), but we’re just not in that place in our life. We’re fine accepting that, and we’ll still battle.”

The pandemic forced the 2021 Scotties to take place in a bubble and Kurz was unable to play due to a work commitment (Alberta’s Brittany Tran filled in).

Peterson is hopeful to get back there next month in Calgary (Feb. 16-25) for the full experience.

“It would mean the world to us. We’ve dreamed of this, and we think we have a really good shot at it. It would just be such a dream come true and would prove that you don’t need to play a crazy schedule and all the events. You can hone your own craft and do what you need to do to make it there on Sunday and we think we have that in us.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

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