'Bring it on': Jennifer Jones's new team roars to another Scotties (2024)

What do you get when you add the province’s most decorated skip to a young team coming off its first Manitoba women’s curling championship?

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An unbeatable combination, it turns out, ready to do some damage at the national championship.

The Jennifer Jones juggernaut completed its unbeaten run through the provincial championship on Sunday and is headed for the Tournament of Hearts in Kamloops, next month.

Seeded second, Team Jones needed just eight ends to flatten the hometown-favourite Abby Ackland foursome, 10-5, at the East St. Paul Arena in the final.

Finishing her week a perfect 9-0, the 48-year-old put a bow on her record ninth provincial title as a skip.

“The girls played as good as I’ve ever seen them play,” Jones said of first-year teammates Karlee Burgess and sisters Mackenzie and Emily Zacharias. “They were on fire. They made everything. They made it real easy for me. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

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The final was close until the fifth end, when Jones made a tricky hit to score a pair and grab a 6-3 lead. A steal of two in the sixth made it just a matter of time.

Team Ackland had scratched and clawed its way to a 6-3 record to reach the final, knocking off top seed Kaitlyn Lawes in the Sunday morning semifinal, only to meet its match, and everyone else’s this week.

“It’s Jennifer Jones,” Ackland fourth Meghan Walter said. “So she’s a pretty good team. The Zacharias team has come out of juniors very hot themselves.”

Have they ever.

This will already be the third trip to the national championship for the Altona-based Zacharias crew, which includes Lauren Lenentine alternating with Emily Zacharias at lead.

Two years ago they went as a wildcard, last year as Manitoba champs carrying the little-known Zacharias name. Both times with no fans in the stands.

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Safe to say they won’t fly under the radar with Jones, a four-time Canadian champ and former Olympic gold medalist.

“Bring it on,” Burgess said of the added pressure. “It just makes you more excited. Having Jenn, having the crowd, having our family there, it’s going to make it better for all of us.

“We’re going to win. It’s our third time back, so we’re going to make some moves.”

Based on how they come through in big games, you’d be unwise to count them out.

The latest example came before a full house of 300-plus fans on Sunday.

“We just all rise to the occasion,” Burgess said. “It’s just in us to show up when we need to in the big games. We want to win, so we put everything into it for this game.”

Nobody loves to compete and win more than Jones.

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Burgess says their skip delivered a Sunday pre-game speech that got everyone ready to roll.

“She got everyone fired up,” she said. “She loves to win, she loves to curl. She just wanted us to show up, and we did for her.”

Jones first won Manitoba 21 years ago. If someone had told her then there’d be eight more titles on the horizon, she would have had two words in response.

“You’re crazy,” she said. “I just really wanted to be at one Scotties. That was my curling goal. I’ve kind of done that, and been to a few more. Which is gravy. Never becomes old hat. It’s never been about records or about numbers. It’s always been about being in the moment.

“I play ’cause I love to play. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s honestly been about that for me.”

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Nobody knows that better than Lawes, the third with whom Jones won her previous four Manitoba titles.

The top seed this week, Lawes dropped the semifinal to Ackland by an 8-5 count.

All things considered – she became a new mom just six weeks ago, and with a new team – Lawes had a pretty good perspective on the loss.

“Honestly, we’re just super proud,” she said. “We know we have a wildcard spot. So we’ve been playing pretty light and loose this whole week.”

The No. 4 ranked team in Canada, Lawes wasn’t the only Manitoba team with a shot at a wildcard berth in the nationals this weekend.

Ackland was in the mix, too, needing Rachel Homan to win Ontario, also on Sunday.

“Homan wins!” somebody in the East St. Paul crowd shouted shortly after Ackland dropped Sunday’s final.

They already knew. Their coach had been giving them updates during the game.

A wildcard trip to Kamloops – defending national champ Kerri Einarson will make it four Manitoba teams there – wasn’t a bad consolation prize.

“Always a privilege to be at the national Scotties,” Walter, the fourth, said. “To be there for our first time as a new team and all of our first times at the national women’s, it would be an honour, still.”

pfriesen@postmedia.com

Twitter: @friesensunmedia

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