Yukon’s Team Eby narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the 2021 Everest Canadian Curling Club Championships.

Two Yukon teams competed in the championships, which ran from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4 at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

The women’s team was skipped by Laura Eby, with Lorna Spenner, third, Tamar Vandenberghe, second and Laura Williamson at lead rounding out the foursome.

The mens’ team, skipped by Dustin Mikkelsen, went 1-5 in their Championships.

The Star reached Eby, whose voice was strained from calling the shots all last week, following the event.

Eby was impressed by what she saw at the Club Championships.

“It was awesome. It takes hundreds of volunteers to put that kind of event together and they just nailed it. They had drivers, every team had an ambassador, there was several officials that were all volunteering – they did a spectacular job.”

As for how it went for Team Eby, “really good,” stated Eby. “We finished the round-robin 3-3, so we were in the top-four in our pool, so we crossed over to the playoffs ... Friday. Our first game was against Alberta. They were in Pool A, we were in Pool B and they didn’t lose a game in their whole round robin. So we ended up handing them their first loss.”

Team Eby beat Alberta 8-3, scoring three in the seventh alone.

“We only had an hour and a half, then we played New Brunswick, and we beat them. We had played them in the round-robin and they beat us, but when we played them again Friday, we beat them by quite a bit.

“Those two wins moved us to the semifinals – actually the first team to move to the semifinals, so that was pretty exciting.”

Things got a little tougher after that.

“On Saturday, we met Northern Ontario, who ended up winning the whole thing and the score didn’t really depict how well we played. We played pretty good. We certainly didn’t have the game we were playing on Friday, but we played pretty good on Saturday morning ... we played Nova Scotia for the bronze and we were coming home tied, but they had hammer, so they had the upper hand, so they ended up winning that game, “ recalled Eby.

Team Eby fell 7-1 to Northern Ontario in seven ends, keeping it close until surrendering a four-score in the last end.

The bronze medal game was tied 3-3 going into the final end, but Nova Scotia scored two to take home the bronze.

That wasn’t it for Eby, though, as she earned a huge reward for her efforts.

“I was super-proud of my team; they were amazing all week with their shots and their sweeping and just staying positive all week was the ticket. And then on Saturday night, I actually got the MVP Award, which is huge,” exclaimed Eby.

The officials at the event decide who the MVP’s are. There’s one each for the women and the men.

“It’s a really prestigious and honourable award. It was quite amazing to receive that. It was pretty exciting, and you know what? My whole team deserved it.”

“(Olympic women’s curler) Jennifer Jones, she was there, and she gave me a big hug, and so did (Jones’ lead) Lisa Weagle, so that was pretty exciting,” related Eby.

This was their third time in the Club Championships, but the first time they reached the semifinals.

“It was amazing,” exclaimed Eby. “I was really hoping to get that bronze medal, but it just wasn’t meant to be. The ice was a little bit challenging on Saturday – lots of our rocks were picking, so we lost a bit that way, but they were playing on the same ice.”

The competition was as tough as they expected it to be.

“It was. It was tough competition, that’s for sure. The best teams from every jurisdiction came out, so it wasn’t easy at all, so we were playing really good.”

The Eby rink learned something at the competition.

“We learned quite a bit, actually. We learned different strategies ... watching the other teams. And we were able to pick up on their strategies right out of the gate, so that part was good.

“We’re really lucky here in the Yukon. We have fantastic facilities and ice here at our club, so, going to other places, we have to be able to read the ice very quickly. And we did that really good I think. Saturday was only challenging just because our rocks were picking and you can’t read that. You don’t know when that’s going to happen. But learning other people’s strategies was definitely instrumental in our game all week.”

Despite their success, Team Yukon won’t be back next year. The same rink isn’t allowed to compete in back-to-back years.

“It’s a good thing,” said Eby. “That event has a lot of rules around it, so it’s designed for actual club teams to have an event from the grassroots of curling, because those teams don’t actually have the experience to curl in the Scotties or the Briar, so that’s why that event was developed. You can’t go (to)back-to-back events, so somebody else will have to go next year, but I think the team will probably play down for the Scotties this year.”

The playdowns for the Scott Tournament of Hearts (the Scotties) go down Jan. 6 to 9 at the Whitehorse Curling Club.

The Scotties take place in Thunder Bay, Ont. from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6.

The playdowns for the men’s Briar are also taking place Jan. 6 to 9 in Whitehorse.

“If we get lucky enough to go to Scotties, we have to wait three years before we can go to Clubs (Championships) again,” related Eby. “There’s quite a list of rules and it makes sense. You don’t want the same team going all the time.”

Eby added that it takes a whole team to get this far.

“I am so very proud of my team. There’s not one person out there. There’s four. Even though the skip gets named at all these events, it’s a four-person team that made it happen.”