THUNDER BAY – Karlee Everist is rarely at a loss for words.
Born and raised in Thunder Bay, on Thursday night she helped propel Team Nova Scotia into the Scotties Tournament of Hearts playoffs, one of six teams to advance out of the 18-team field.
Words failed her, at least for a few seconds.
“Awesome,” said Everist, asked how it feels to be moving on, defending champion Rachel Homan up next in Friday’s 1-2 Page qualifier.
“It’s just great.”
The team, skipped by Christina Black, was one of three teams in the final draw at Fort William Gardens facing win-and-they’re-in scenarios.
All three came out victorious.
Black edged Manitoba’s Kate Cameron 8-6, in a game that came down to the final shot, Cameron unable to make a double takeout and stick for three to send the game to an extra end.
Four-time champion Kerri Einarson also needed a final shot to pull out a win, making a hit for three in the 10th end to end the 2025 Scotties dreams of Manitoba rival Kaitlyn Lawes, wining the match 9-6.
The first skip to advance was Ontario’s Danielle Inglis, who scored a 9-3 win over the Northwest Territories, in skip Kerry Galusha’s Scotties swansong.
Einarson claimed top spot in Pool B and will play Alberta’s Kayla Skrlik in the other 1-2 Page qualifier.
Everist said they knew the task at hand and simply set to accomplish it.
Nothing less than 6-2 was likely going to be good enough to get them into the playoffs.
They entered the day at 4-2, and stole their way to a 7-6 win over Quebec in the morning draw, scoring one without hammer in the 10th to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“We had basically what we figured were two elimination games today. It’s just a matter of knowing you have your own destiny in your hands, right? You’ve just got to go out there and do the same thing, just really focus, support each other and that’s really it – let the shots happen and that’s what we did today.”
Homan, a three-time Scotties champion, looms large, but Everist isn’t all that fazed. Respectful? Yes. But confident in her team too.
“Rachel’s not easy. But we’ve played her many times. We’ve beaten her before. We were her last Scotties loss, actually,” Everist said.
The loser of that match gets a second life in the Page 3-4 qualifier on Friday night against whomever comes up short in the Einarson/Skrlik match.
Einarson was able to breathe a sigh of relief after dispatching Lawes, who finished her week at 4-4.
“It definitely hasn’t been easy. We haven’t made it easy on ourselves. We put our backs against the wall and when that happens, it brings out the best in us. I think we’re trending in the right direction and I think we’re getting hot at the right time.”
Einarson, unlike any other skip in the field, has the experience of winning a Scotties title at the Gardens, beating Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville at the 2022 event, only a few hundred fans allowed in the building.
She’s starting to get that feeling again.
“I just keep getting goose bumps … The feeling is unbelievable. We still have big games to come, so we’re just going to focus on that,” Einarson said, agreeing that experience at this stage matters.
“We know that feeling … and we’re definitely excited to be in this position.”
Inglis grabbed the No. 3 seed out of Pool B to make the playoffs for a second straight Scotties.
“That’s what we came here to do and it’s a good start,” she said, adding that making the playoffs last year made things a little less nervy this time around.
“It’s just learning. We’re a team who really learns from every single thing and that really allowed us to come out here firing.”
Draw times are 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday.
