Team Selena Sturmay claims spot at Halifax with win at 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Pre-Trials

WOLFVILLE, N.S. — Edmonton’s Team Selena Sturmay solidified a berth into the 2025 Montana’s Canadian Curling Trials, presented by Connect Hearing, with a 9-4 win over Team Kayla MacMillan (Victoria) in the third and final game of the women’s best-of-three final at the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Pre-Trials on Sunday afternoon.

The Saville Community Sports Centre outfit, completed by vice-skip Danielle Schmiemann, second Dezaray Hawes, lead Paige Papley and coach Ted Appelman, who are part of Curling Canada’s National NextGen program, will now take its talents to the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, Nov. 22-30, 2025, for a chance to be crowned Montana’s Trials champions.

“Feeling everything right now,” said Sturmay, who was a For the Love of Curling Scholarship recipient in 2018. “My team played amazing all week. I have to give full credit to them. They made my job really easy out there. Just wanted to say thank you to them. Really looking forward to the trials.”

The win marks the first-ever Montana’s Trials berth for the no. 15 CTRS-ranked women’s team, which carried a 5-2 record through round-robin play, earning the top seed and a bye to the best-of-three final en route to the pre-trials title.

“This definitely was one of our big goals when forming this team,” said Sturmay. “We started really good our first year, then a little bit of a lull our second year, but I do finally see all that hard work paying off. We’ve put a lot of effort in doing what we do, so it’s nice to see that coming to fruition.”

With both teams sizing one another up in the elimination tilt, a risk-adverse first end saw MacMillan facing two parallel Sturmay stones above the tee-line on her last shot, forcing her to hit for a single.

Unbeknownst to fans at the Andrew H. McCain Arena, it was as close as Team MacMillan would ever get.

“I think the past four games, we’ve always been in control,” said Sturmay. “It’s always been us in the driver’s seat. Our (best-of-three final) loss was one unfortunate miss where the path keened up. I honestly feel like we were in control the whole time.”

In the second end, Team MacMillan would have a lone Team Sturmay stone surrounded, but not outcounted, and Sturmay would draw a small port into the four-foot for the game’s first deuce.

Pressure from Team Sturmay would continue in the third. After lead Papley dropped a perfect draw into the four-foot, Sturmay would protect it for the duration of the end. MacMillan would hazard an angle runback at the counter on her final stone, but missed the intended target by a whisker, resulting in a steal of one.

MacMillian faced more adversity in the fourth. After making a draw around a pile of shrapnel in front of the house with her first, Sturmay rebuked Team MacMillan’s stone successfully with a hit down the centreline, though Sturmay’s shooter would not stick. MacMillan had a carbon-copy of the same draw she made with her seven stone, facing a lone Team Sturmay counter, but the last-stone draw offering pulled up light, resulting in another steal.

Team Sturmay resumed it’s calculated onslaught in the fifth, forcing MacMillan to chase two counters with her final stone with a low-percentage angle-runback. The offering stayed high side, kicking the runback through the wickets of two Team Sturmay counters, extending the lead to 6-1 at the break.

Sturmay continued to credit her team’s strength as the difference-maker in securing the comfortable five-point lead.

“My team, they all curled great,” said Sturmay. “I think all of us were number one, if not number two on the leaderboards this week. I think that, and our communication and our shot plan, we totally understand what we need from each other and that’s what really helped us succeed.”

The sixth provided more of the same. Team MacMillan continued to do everything in its power to generate a multiple score, but was unsuccessful, resulting in an open hit on MacMillan’s final stone for a single.

The game’s biggest strike came in the seventh, where Team MacMillan was forced into some riskier shot-making in order to stage a comeback. Team Sturmay leveraged the risk to its advantage, with Sturmay needing a double on her final stone. That last-rock salvo would find purchase in its intended target as a double takeout, scoring three for the Edmontonian squadron.

Team MacMillan rallied with a deuce of its own in the eighth, but the game was already out of reach, and chose to concede the game shortly thereafter.

Archived scoring, standings and statistics for the 2025 Home Hardware Canadian Curling Pre-Trials are available by CLICKING HERE.