Another week and another Red Deer College sports team is in a battle for a national championship.

Hot on the heels of the Kings and Queens volleyball gold medals and the Kings basketball team making it to the national final, the Queens curling team is trading rocks with the country’s best in Sault Ste. Marie.

Fourth year skip Kaitlyn Sherrer is making her second trip to the big show and says this event helps on a couple of fronts.

“I’m really excited. It’s good for curling. They just started nationals two years ago so it’s good for the sport and it’s good for RDC to be put on the map.”

Third Julie Primrose is also making her second trip to nationals and she’s looking forward to seeing a city in a province further east than Saskatchewan as well as the chance to meet some curling world celebrities.

“I’m pretty excited to go also since Brad Jacob’s team is there, who won the gold medal at the Olympics and so maybe we’ll get to see them.”

Rookie lead Taylor Eno is in her first year with the RDC team and she gets to cap it off with a trip to nationals but it wasn’t looking all that good at the start of the season.

“We started out kind of rough. We had to get used to each other,” she said. “I had never curled with any of the girls. You have to become friends to play on a team but that was pretty easy.”

The communication amongst the team members when there is an important shot was a key factor in how their season progressed according to Primrose.

“Communication between the sweepers, letting you know what the weight is and the communication from the person in the house is really strong on our team.”

Sherrer agreed.

“Everyone has their own strengths and we had to figure it out,” she said.

“Looking at our provincial record we didn’t do as good but when we had to win we did win. So coming together and pulling out wins is probably the best thing we did in provincials.”

The Queens closed off the ACAC provincials with a bronze medal to punch their ticket to the Canadian championships and now it’s time to face some very good competition they’ve never faced, on ice they’ve never curled on.

Sherrer says they have to work as a team to find the quirks in the ice and they use their local ice as a measuring stick.

“It’s not as keen as Red Deer or it’s keener than Red Deer, that’s kind of our baseline and then we figure it out as we go.”

The team has some expectations going into the action with some of them having been there before .

“I’d like to say go there and get a medal but just being there is a big deal,” said Sherrer. “I’m hoping we do well but I won’t be disappointed no matter how we finish.”

The rookie on the team, which also includes Courtney Smith and Jessica Neuman, gives a newbie perspective to a big event.

“Well I’m a pretty competitive person so I’m definitely looking to win but I think just being there will be a good experience and help with next year,” said Eno.

The CCAA championships are underway this week.

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