CARSTAIRS - The team skipped by Carstairs’ Myla Plett has won the U-18 national women’s curling championship.
Platt’s Alberta 1 team defeated the Alberta 2 team in the finals of the national tournament, held in Oakville, Ontario May 1-7.
Playing out of the Airdrie Curling Club, the team is skip Plett, third Rachel Jacques from Edmonton, second Alyssa Nedohin from Sherwood Park, lead Lauren Miller from Airdrie, fifth Chloe Fediuk from Edmonton, and coach Blair Lenton from Airdrie.
Plett says she couldn’t be happier with the big win.
“It was really exciting,” Plett told the Albertan. “We were hoping to do well and make the playoffs and just have a good experience in Ontario and enjoy the people there, but it was an extra bonus ending up actually winning.”
She said the competition was great throughout the event, and coach Lenton and Alyssa’s father David Nedohin, a former Olympic champion, were very helpful throughout the tournament.
“They helped our team all through the season. They just kept pushing us and that really helped us,” she said.
The Platt team qualified for nationals in January by defeating a team from Red Deer 7-3 in the semifinal and a team from Lethbridge 8-2 in the finals of the 2021-22 provincial championships.
During the national championships in Oakville, Team Plett went 4-2 during the round robin.
Seeded fourth, the team then defeated the New Brunswick Team 2 by a 10-3 score, and then the Quebec Team 1 in the semifinals by a 9-2 score.
During the finals, the team faced off against provincial rivals Alberta 2, winning 3-1 to take the national title.
In the end, Plett said her teammates were critical to the national win.
“In every end they set up us and I had maybe two hard shots the entire time,” she said. “I had mostly open hits and open draws. They left everything clean and open for me.
“Once we got to the final it was really exciting and we just wanted to win.”
The national championships was originally scheduled to take place in Timmins, Ontario Feb. 14-20, but was postponed due to COVID and then moved to Oakville, outside Toronto.
Third Rachel Jacques is moving to the U of A Panda team for next season, so Allie Iskew will be joining the Plett team in 2022-2023.
