Edmonton’s Sturmay represents Alberta in wide-open Scotties women’s curling championship

Selena Sturmay throws a rock during Canadian Olympic curling trials action against Team Einarson in Halifax, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.

The third time could be the national championship charm in the coming days for an Edmonton-based women’s curling team.

Skip Selena Sturnay and her Saville Community Sports Centre-based team earned a spot in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s national curling championship earlier this month when they won the Alberta title for the second time. They earned their first in 2024.

Team Sturmay beat a fellow Saville squad, the top-ranked Serena Gray-Withers, 9-5 on Jan. 11 in the Alberta final at Okotoks. Sturmay had lost to Gray-Withers twice before, their only two losses in the tournament -- in the Page 1-2 playoff as well as during the round-robin. Surmay beat Amanda Sluchinski of Edmonton’s Crestwood Curling Club 9-2 in the semifinal.

The decision in the finale was Gray-Withers’s only loss over the six-day championship.

Calgary’s Kayla Skrlik, last year’s provincial champ, is the other Alberta team in this year’s Scotties, having earned a pre-qualification berth in the nationals.

The 18-team field for this year’s Scotties is considered wide open with two-time defending national champion Rachel Homan sitting out while she prepares to represent Canada next month at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Homan, who has won the Scotties five times, is ranked No. 1 in the world.

It’s the third time in the Scotties for Sturmay and her team of Danielle Schmiemann, Dezaray Hawes and Paige Papley, coached by Ted Appelman, having earned a bye to the tourney last year.

Sturmay and co., who take to the ice in Mississauga, Ont., starting Saturday at 12 p.m. MT (TV: TSN) against Amanda Power of Prince Edward Island, will face strong competition in the likes of fellow Pool B teams Skrlik, Beth Peterson of Manitoba, Christina Black of Nova Scotia (a semifinalist last year who lost to Homan in the Olympic trials final) and Krista Scharf of Northern Ontario, not to mention those in the other pool such as Kerri Einarson of Team Canada (last year’s finalist in place of Homan), Kaitlyn Lawes of Manitoba, Jolene Campbell of Saskatchewan and Taylor Reese-Hansen of British Columbia.

Teams are split into nine-team pools. The top three teams in each pool at the end of round-robin play will advance to the playoffs, which start next Friday, with the final on Sunday, Feb. 1.

The national winner will represent Canada at the women’s world championships March 14-22 in Calgary.

The Montana’s Brier, the men’s national curling championship, is slated to be held Feb. 27-March 8 in St. John’s, N.L., following the Olympics. Calgary’s Kevin Koe will represent Alberta.