Local Cochrane curler Julianna MacKenzie kicked off her curling season with Team Crough in Leduc over the weekend at the inaugural Alberta Curling Series Tour event against some pretty seasoned competitors and showed they belonged.

The young team competed against 11 other women's teams and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2 win over the Marla Sherrer rink, of Lacombe. Tied 3-3 six ends into the quarterfinal, the Casey Scheidegger rink went on to a 6-3 win after grabbing three in the seventh.

Scheidegger, 33, is a former provincial junior champion and is currently a skip on the World Curling Tour.

The Kamloops rink of Corryn Brown won the event over Calgary's Lindsay Bertsch in the final.

The Crough rink is formed by skip Elysa Crough, third Quinn Prodaniuk, second Kim Bonneau, and lead Julianna MacKenzie. The pandemic limited their play last year, and ice has only recently been available.

"We weren't sure how well we were going to do considering our season got cut short last year and we only had a couple of practices before that event," says MacKenzie. "It was such a long off-season, and we weren't sure what to expect. Then we just started playing really well near the end of the tournament and qualified."

"Once we qualified, we had a lot of people starting to notice us and really cheering us on. Even though we lost in the quarterfinals, we had a lot of supporters."

The team got to play against some pretty big names in women's curling, including their mentors Laura Walker and Taylor McDonald.

"They went to the Scotties representing Team Alberta and they actually sponsor our team. They give us mentorship throughout the season, we have had practices with them, and they're really open and always there for us, so it was nice that we got to play them this weekend."

The next competition on the tour is being held Sept. 10-12 at the Saville Community Sports Centre, the home rink of Laura Walker.

"I think we're ready to play in the women's event now. We're not so scared of the big-name teams anymore because we know we can compete alongside them."

Cochrane GM and Benjamin Moore Paints are among those supporting Team Crough in their 2021-2022 season.