Team NWT’s curlers are heading home from the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after missing out in pre-qualifying.
Skip Kerry Galusha and her team lost 8-5 to British Columbia in the final of pre-qualifying on Saturday, having won two of their three round-robin games.
“A tough, tough loss today,” the team said through its Twitter account. “Much harder than last year as we are a better team this year.”
Galusha, Megan Cormier, Danielle Derry and Shona Barbour had earlier beaten Yukon 10-7 and Nunavut 13-2, but failed to reach the main stage of the tournament after losing twice to BC.
This is the second year a pre-qualifying tournament has been held at Scotties, following the expansion of the tournament’s field to include more teams. The NWT and Yukon, for example, now compete separately where once they fielded a joint team.
Pre-qualifying will remain in 2017 but is set to be abolished for the 2018 tournament as it has proved unpopular with players and spectators.
“It will be nice to see a team from NWT, a team from the north in general actually play in the Scotties,” Galusha told the Canadian Press after her exit at this year’s event in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
“Even though we’re here right now, we don’t actually consider us playing in the Scotties right now.”
