Mackenzie Zacharias and her Altona-based squad are returning to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts but this time as provincial champions.
Zacharias captured her first career Manitoba Scotties title after defeating Kristy Watling's Winnipeg club 7-5 during Sunday's final in Carberry.
All tied up in the final frame, Zacharias held the all-important last rock and just needed to connect on a partially open hit to score two points.
The team of Zacharias, third Karlee Burgess, second Emily Zacharias and lead Lauren Lenentine will make their second consecutive appearance at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, taking place Jan. 28-Feb. 6 in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Zacharias, who won the world junior gold medal in 2020, earned a berth to last season's Canadian women's curling championship in the Calgary bubble as Wild Card Two and posted a 3-5 pool record.
Earlier Sunday, Watling defeated Kaitlyn Jones's Winnipeg team 8-6 in the semifinal.
All three playoff teams qualified with identical 6-2 records, however, Zacharias earned the direct bye to the final due to tiebreaker scenarios.
Familiar names like Kerri Einarson, who holds the Team Canada auto-berth, and Jennifer Jones, who is off to represent Canada at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, did not compete in this year's Manitoba Scotties while world No. 1 Tracy Fleury finished with a 5-3 record and failed to reach the playoff round.
Ranked No. 1 in the nation, Fleury will have another shot to reach the Scotties Tournament of Hearts through the wild-card play-in game, which will feature the top two teams who did not already qualify, although Curling Canada will confirm following the conclusion of all playdowns.
So far only Zacharias, Einarson, Nova Scotia's Christina Black and Nunavut’s Brigitte MacPhail have secured their spots for the 16-team field with the remaining provincial playdowns scheduled to run early in the New Year.
