Cave rink opens season Friday morning at KW Fall Classic

Team Grace Cave's season starts with an 11:30 AM Friday draw. The new Ontario foursome of Cave, third Emily Deschenes, second Madison Fisher and lead Melanie Ebach hits the ice at the KW Granite Club for the Hogged Rock KW Fall Classic presented by Runback Brewing, opening round-robin play against Katelin Langford's Uxbridge rink in a 20-team women's field that runs through Sunday.

The name to watch on this lineup is Deschenes. The Ottawa native skipped Ontario to silver at the 2019 Canadian U18s, represented Canada at the 2020 Youth Olympics in Lausanne and led her junior rink to the 2022 Ontario U21 title and a Canadian Juniors final. After three seasons playing out of Manitoba, where her team peaked at 22nd in the CTRS in 2023-24, she's back in Ontario colours and throwing third for Cave.

Cave, from Winchester, brings a university curling background from Brock and Toronto and has doubled on the mixed doubles side with Jayden King. With Fisher and Ebach rounding out the front end, the group is starting from scratch on chemistry, and a Friday morning start against Langford is as good a low-pressure entry point as the schedule offers before the bigger names on the draw come calling.