The best women's curling teams in the province took over the Riverdale Community Centre last week for the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The tournament would send the winning foursome to the National Scotties Tournament of Hearts later this month in Moose Jaw.

The event kicked off on January 29 and it ran right through this past Sunday. The semi-final and final was broadcasted on Sportsnet.

"Things couldn't have gone better. It was a packed house all week, we're extremely happy," said Les Wedderburn, Chair of the event. "Everything went smoothly, it was phenomenal."

"Jennifer Jones had a comment that she would come back to Rivers for an event like this anytime," he added. "We had great volunteers and all of the feedback was positive."

The field for the event was a stacked one. It included the likes of Team Jones, Team Kerri Einarson, Team Tracy Fleury, and nine other teams who were all looking to pull off an upset. 

In a new format, the top two teams from each group advanced. Team Fleury and Team Kristy Watling advanced from the Black Group while Einarson and Team Jones advanced out of the Red Group.

On Sunday morning, Team Jones scored one in the 11th end to beat Team Fleury, 8-7, to advance to the final.

Jones would score two points in the first end of the final, however; it wasn't mean to be. Team Einarson which features Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard, and Briane Meilleur proved to be too strong as they won 8-6.

The win means Team Einarson will represent Team Manitoba at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts from February 15-23 at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw.

"It was almost surreal to have the best teams here," concluded Wedderburn. "Especially to have three of the top teams in the world, that's pretty incredible. It's almost unbelievable when you think about it."

Despite losing the final, Team Jones will have another chance as will Team Fleury. The two teams will play against each other on Friday, February 14. The winner will be Team Wild Card when the tournament gets underway on Saturday morning. The two teams are playing in this game based on their ranking within Canada.