Falon Burkitt saved her best for her last appearance at the Tim Hortons Junior Women's provincial championship last week.
"Considering the start to this week I was very happy we were able to get on a roll and take it all the way to the finals," said Burkitt, 20, after obtaining the silver medal in her third appearance at the junior women's provincial championship in Victoria from Dec. 28 to 31.
The Burkitt team - with Jessie and Ashley Sanderson and lead Sydney Gustafson - fell 8-4 in the final Saturday to Nanimo's Kesa Van Osch after rebounding from a 1-3 start Wednesday to rally off five straight victories.
"This is actually the best we've ever done," said Burkitt. "I'm very happy personally because I've been working with coach Doug [Dalziel] for the last three years and each of those years my team, whomever I've been curling with, has made steady progress at provincials."
The product of Hudson Hope spent the first eight years of her curling career battling for the Alberta junior crown, switching to British Columbia when she began her studies at the University of Northern British Columbia.
In her first appearance at the B.C. junior women's provincial championship, the Burkitt squad finished with a 2-5 record and fell in the tiebreaker last year, finishing fourth.
The Burkitt team had only curled together twice before arriving in Victoria, as the Sandersons are based in Vancouver, so the rocky start to their week was understandable.
"We haven't had the experiences to get to know each other as well as we probably should, which makes it a little bit more difficult because you don't know exactly what the other players on your team need or what they like, especially if they're having a bad game or before the game what their routines are," said Burkitt. "It was very rushed to try and learn that and accommodate every body."
Burkitt and Jessie Sanderson, 20, had talked about curling together two years ago when they met at the provincial championship, but logistics weren't in their favour. Last year, they toyed with the idea again and wound up teaming up, along with Ashley, for the Kevin Martin Junior Spiel in Edmonton last April where they did reasonably well.
"They lost to the junior boys team that won the Canadian championship last year," said Dalziel. "That was the point when Falon realized they were quite good together and her dilemma started in what to do."
When school began in September Burkitt met up with Gustafson at UNBC and the two decided to curl together on a couple of women's local teams in addition to teaming up with the Sandersons on a provincial level.
In September the four ladies took part in a cash spiel in Cloverdale along with curlers like Kelly Law and other former Scotties Tournament of Hearts competitors. The Burkitt rink went 3-for-5 and won $600 and had the opportunity to curl against the the Russia team that was at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Dalziel said it's a shame distance was a factor in the foursome's ability to work together.
"This year's probably the strongest team she's had playing with her," said Dalziel about Burkitt. "She's gotten a lot more comfortable in her role and it showed this year. She's very coachable. She's got a great work ethic and works hard, it's unfortunate she came up a little bit short."
In the final the Burkitt crew led 2-1 at the fifth end break, but they couldn't get a freeze on one of Van Osch's rocks in the sixth end, leaving the Vancouver Island skip an easy takeout to score three for a 4-2 advantage. Burkitt was able to tie the game at 4-4 in the next end, but Van Osch, 7-1 during the round robin, added two in the eighth end and another two in nine to earn the trip to Napanee, Ont., for the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Championship from Feb. 4 to 12.
"Van Osch was very consistent, she didn't have a glaring weakness at all," said Dalziel. "We had chances to get out of both those ends [sixth and eighth] unscathed but didn't make the shots we needed to."
The Burkitt rink actually out curled the Van Osch rink percentage wise in the final: 77 per cent to 73 per cent, but the misses came at key points. In the final round-robin game, a 10-1 win in six ends, Burkitt curled an 89.5 per cent.
"It's pretty amazing what they accomplished," said Dalziel. "It they were able to spend more together perhaps they could've done better."
