McLeod longs for trip to National Scotties Portage team’s skip hoping 13th trip to provincial tourney brings her luck By: Taylor Allen Posted: 5:29 PM CST Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024

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MORDEN — Lisa McLeod’s eyes begin to water when she’s asked what it would mean to go on a big run at this week’s Manitoba women’s curling championship.

“It’s on the bucket list to go to the (national) Scotties. It’s the one thing that I want in my life,” McLeod, a 36-year-old skip from Winnipeg, said earlier this week. “I keep getting older, which is fine, curling is a good sport for that, but I still want it as much as ever. This is such a great team and I think it’s absolutely attainable for us.”

It’s a team that was thrown together during the 2022-23 season when McLeod — who stepped away from the women’s curling scene after giving birth to her second child in the summer of 2022 — got a call from third Janelle Lach, second Hallie McCannell and lead Jolene Callum. Their skip, Rhonda Varnes, left the Portage la Prairie team and they needed someone to come in and throw the final stones.

McLeod got some encouragement from her family and rounded out the foursome just in time to help them secure a spot at the 2023 provincials at East St. Paul.

The Manitoba Scotties championship was only McLeod’s second event of the season, but she showed no signs of rust, guiding her crew to the championship round after finishing in second place in their pool behind eventual winner, Jennifer Jones. They bowed out after that but definitely made an impression.

On Thursday at the Access Event Centre, McLeod improved to 2-1 in the Red Group after defeating Dauphin’s Tiffany Armstrong 7-2 in the 12:15 p.m. draw. Still ahead was a stiff test against unbeaten Jolene Campbell of Assiniboine Memorial in the late draw.

The 12-team competition concludes Sunday.

“I don’t think there were great expectations for us… we just wanted to go out there and have some fun. Last year was Hallie’s first Manitoba Scotties, so, we just really wanted to give her a really good experience and we did that,” said McLeod, who’s playing in the event for the 13th time.

In 2022, she skipped the Jennifer Clark-Rouire team from Miami to an 0-5 showing. Her best result came in 2012 when she went 5-2 in the preliminaries before losing to Jones in the 3-4 Page playoff game.

“I don’t think there were great expectations for us… we just wanted to go out there and have some fun.”–Lisa McLeod

“(In 2023) we just came out firing and there wasn’t a lot of pressure on us and I’m sure that helped a little bit,” said McLeod.

Gearing up for the championship in Morden, the squad added fifth-player Hailey McFarlane, a former third for East St. Paul’s Kristy Watling. They’ve been a true five-person unit all season and will continue to rotate players in and out this week.

McFarlane has been a big addition as she has experience playing several different positions.

They kicked things off Wednesday with a 10-2 victory against the Zoey Terrick of the Heather before falling 7-4 to New Bothwell’s Kate Cameron.

“It’s gonna be a surprise every game which lineup is gonna show up. Our opponents won’t know. Maybe we won’t even know,” laughed McLeod.

The team has been a force on the Manitoba Curling Tour this season with a victory at the Atkins Curling Supplies Classic in October and three semi-finals appearances.

McLeod said they’re not intimated by the fact five top-20 teams in Canada — Kaitlyn Lawes, Cameron, Campbell, Beth Peterson and Watling — are in Morden gunning for the right to wear the Buffalo in Calgary next month at nationals (Feb 16-25).

McLeod is No. 44 in the Canadian Team Ranking System.

“Honestly, I think with Scotties, it’s anyone’s week. Whoever shows up and plays well is going to win it,” said McFarlane. “I don’t pay attention to rankings too much because I’ve been provincials before and have beat people before that are Top 10 or Top 3 in Canada.

“I’ve had a lot of experience playing here… it’s anyone’s game. It’s whoever figures out the ice the fastest and makes the most shots. That could be the 100th-ranked team in the world or the first-ranked team in the world.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

X: @TaylorAllen31