2026 Women's Club Nationals Preview
Previewing the 2026 Women's Club National Championship
While the national championships or world championships signify the beginning of the end of curling for many, it’s the arrival of the club national championships that does it for me. From here, there are still a few events left on the horizon, but the wind down is about to start.
I won’t speak for you all, but for me, these last two months have been a marathon. Since the middle of January, I have had two days without a major curling event going on to pay attention to: February 2nd and February 3rd (in order: Scotties, Olympics, USA Nationals, World Juniors, Paralympics, World Women’s). This means Monday through Wednesday of this week will be the first break in over six weeks before another sprint begins with club nationals and the World Men’s Championship here in Utah.
While a part of me is ready to get back to reading, hiking, and reminding myself that there is a world that exists outside of curling, I cannot wait to see what unfolds in Chaska, Minnesota for the 2026 USA Club National Championships.
A new women’s team will be crowned champions for the first time in a couple years after the reigning champions were usurped in regional playdowns. The women’s field this year is incredible. Among the twelve teams competing in Chaska, Minnesota, we’ve got returning medalists, up-and-coming youth talent, and an Olympian!
Let’s dig in.
How To Watch
The Chaska Curling Center will play host to this event, and over the course of the last two years, they have added streaming capabilities. All games will be available on the Chaska Curling Center YouTube channel.
Draw Schedule
As with all USA Curling national championships, the full draw schedule, team lists, live scores, and standings are available on the USA Curling Event Hub. The top three teams from each pool advance to the playoffs, with the top seed in each pool earning a bye to the semifinal.
Here is the draw schedule for the women’s event (all times Central).
Thursday, March 26
12:00pm - Women’s Round Robin Draw 1
8:00pm - Women’s Round Robin Draw 2
Friday, March 27
12:00pm - Women’s Round Robin Draw 3
8:00pm - Women’s Round Robin Draw 4
Saturday, March 28
12:00pm - Women’s Round Robin Draw 5
4:00pm - Women’s and Men’s Quarterfinals
Sunday, March 29
9:00am - Women’s and Men’s Semifinals
2:00pm - Women’s and Men’s Medal Games
Meet the Teams
Teams are listed in approximate order of peer seeding.
Note: I did the best I could to research the teams’ past experience at club nationals. I apologize if there are any errors regarding whether or not a team has previously played at club nationals.
Pool A
Roth - Madison Curling Club (Wisconsin)
Madison Curling Club has been the home of the women’s club national championship trophy for the past two seasons, thanks to back-to-back victories of Team Schroeder. Their title defense came to a stop after Nina Roth emerged from the strong Wisconsin playdown.
Roth, a two-time Olympian, stepped away from competitive women’s curling following the 2022 Winter Olympics and has made appearances at the Mixed National Championship and the US Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials in the past year. She adds another USA Curling event to her belt with a strong Madison team looking to make a deep run in Chaska.
Team Roth faced some steep competition in Stevens Point for their regional playdown, posting a 5-1 record. They’ll need to put together another strong week with some stiff competition ahead.
Turbow - Rock Creek Curling (Mid-America)
One year after a tough loss in the finals of the Mid-America regional playdown, Melissa Turbow bounced back as strong as could be. They prevented lighting from striking twice and put on an undefeated showing in Colorado to earn their spot at nationals. In their six qualifier games, Turbow outscored opponents 48-21.
Playing at club nationals is nothing new for the skipper. She most recently appeared in this event in 2023, earning the silver medal playing with 2002 and 2014 Olympian Ann Swisshelm. Representing Detroit Curling Club at the time, Turbow and Swisshelm earned a club nationals gold medal together in 2020.
Walsh - San Francisco Bay Area (Mountain Pacific)
For another year, Team Walsh out of California will return to the club championships, representing the MoPac region as a “wild card” entry. MoPac had the largest playdown field in the country again this year, earning them a second berth at the event.
This is Sarah Walsh’s fourth straight trip to club nationals, with three of the five members of last year’s team returning. Last season, Team Walsh was in a wild four-way tie for first place and had the misfortune of being the odd-team out of the playoffs.
DiBaggio - Mayfield Curling Club (Great Lakes)
Typically, the representative of the Great Lakes region has come from the state of Michigan, but this year, the representative comes from their great rival Ohio. DiBaggio’s rink posted a 3-1 record in their qualifying event, with the lone loss coming in an 11-10 barnburner. As far as I could find in my research, this will be the debut club national championship for Team DiBaggio!
Mariano - Granite Curling Club of Seattle (Pacific Northwest)
The Pacific Northwest was the final region to name their representatives, with their qualifier held less than a month ago. When the dust settled, it was Sheila Mariano’s rink who had to make a quick turnaround for travel plans to Minnesota with weeks to spare. Mariano took the final in an extra end thriller to earn their first trip to club nationals after Shannon Brown represented the region each of the last two years.
Jeannot - Chaska Curling Club (Host)
For hosting the championship event, Chaska Curling Center received a berth into the club championship field. Lori Jeannot won that opportunity to compete on home ice in a three-team playdown last fall, defeating the Senior Women’s National Champion, Margie Smith, in a final. Jeannot will have some stiff competition, but they have the benefit of playing the championship in the most familiar environment.
Pool B
Podoll - Fargo-Moorhead Curling Club (Dakota)
For the last two seasons, Ann Podoll has been on the verge of returning to the top of the podium for the first time since she won the club championship in Fairbanks, Alaska in 2017. Each time, she was bested Madison’s Sidney Schroeder in wild games. But, it’s a new year, and a new championship.
The roster looks a little different this year, with Christina Wilwand and Emily Parry replacing Rachel Kawleski and Rachel Workin. Podoll, along with lead Kenzie Ritchie, are fresh off a strong 4th place finish at the USA Curling Women’s National Championships in Charlotte (where, by the way, Podoll and Schroeder teamed up to form a formidable back end). Podoll’s club team still has looked strong, posting a 5-1 record at the 4-team Dakota playdowns. It’s going to be hard to count them out, even moreso if they have the same uniforms as last year.
Berg - Bemidji Curling Club (Minnesota)
Bemidji’s Nia Berg looked to bell well on their way to last year’s club national championship in Milwaukee but fell victim to the experience of Maureen Stolt and Shelley Dropkin on their home ice. A year older, a year wiser, and a year more experienced, Team Berg looked really good in the Minnesota playdowns this year, just dropping the one game of round robin play to Stolt on their way to a regional victory.
Team Berg is the youngest team in the field, fresh off a silver medal at the U18 national championships where they lost to Allory Johnson (4th at World Juniors) in the gold medal game. While I’m excited to watch them in another national event, I’m really looking forward to seeing what this group of young curlers accomplishes on the women’s stage in years to come. I could see them as a potential team at USA Nationals in coming years.
Thangadurai - San Francisco Bay Area (Mountain Pacific)
When watching some of my first MoPac club playdowns a couple years ago, I started seeing comments in livestream channels saying things like “Subs doing Subs things” whenever Team Thangadurai was on the ice. As I’ve had the chance to watch more of this team, including their 7-1 performance at regional playdowns and their appearance at the Jr GSOC U25 Slam event held last fall, I started to get it.
Team Thangadurai plays a strong game, has good sweepers, and a skip who is unafraid to throw the big shot. I think this is a team that could give fits to the field if everything comes together in Chaska for their club championship debut.
Conrad - Charlotte Curling Association (Grand National)
At first, I found it hard to believe that this year was the first time Charlotte Curling would be represented at club nationals. The GNCC, though, is the largest region in the country with a ton of clubs who have long histories of good curlers. Charlotte, a relatively new dedicated facility (compared with other GNCC clubs, anyways), has seen a number of strong curlers make their way around the country in recent years, and Kristen Conrad’s rink have their names on that list.
They qualified with a 4-1 record, including an impressive win over 2023 national champion Seré Politano. Team Conrad has a tough group, but I would not be surprised to see them take teams the distance.
Yaple - Chicago Curling Club (Midwest)
While Haley Yaple’s team did not have to play down last year and was able to qualify for nationals uncontested, that did not hold true for the 2025-2026 season. They swept their best-of-three qualifier in the two-team playdown to return back to nationals following a quarterfinal finish in the 2025 campaign. Yaple came in on the positive side of the aforementioned 4-way tie for first in their pool last year to qualify for playoffs.
All members of this team will be returning from last year and have been regulars at the club championships for a few years as they look to make it to a medal game for the first time since vice Sara Gaum finished in 4th place as a skip at the 2019 championship.
Mazur - Anchorage Curling Club (Alaska)
While multiple representatives qualified for nationals uncontested in last year’s event, this year, Alaska was the lone region to have a single team register for playdowns. Becca Mazur will return to skip the Alaskan team for the second straight year. The rest of the lineup, though, will be made up of fresh faces. Mazur’s team has gone 1-4 in each of the past two years and will be looking to improve on that performance in Minnesota.
My Picks
Gold: Thangadurai (San Francisco Bay Area)
Silver: Roth (Madison)
Bronze: Berg (Bemidji)
I decided to be a bit bold this year with my guesses on winners for this season (new year, same caveat: these are guesses and nothing more). I absolutely see a world where Team Podoll makes me look like an idiot (not hard to do) and runs to the top of the podium. The thing is, there are so many strong teams in the field that I could see any number of iterations for the top three spots.
Across all of the playdowns I watched this year, I was impressed by the level of play in the MoPac region and took particular note of Thangadurai’s willingness to take and ability to make big shots. If they can prevent the big end against them, this is going to be an incredibly tough team to beat in the playoffs.
I would just as likely be unsurprised to see a Madison team win this event for the third straight year. Nina Roth’s lineup can create havoc and overwhelm opponents. If it ends up being Roth and Thangadurai in the final, I think we may see some really entertaining ends.
While I see at least 4 other teams who would reasonably be on the podium, I decided to go with the U18 curlers from Minnesota, Team Berg. This is another great growth experience for the young team, and I think they’ll do well on the great ice in Chaska!
No matter who is being handed awards at the end of the week, we’re set up for a fun week of curling in Chaska!
Up Next: Men’s Preview
Stay tuned for the men’s preview coming in the next few days! As with the women’s event, we’ve got a lot of old and new faces taking the ice. And when it comes to predicting who will come out on top, I am going to prove myself to be even more clueless with that field.
What is this "world that exists outside of curling" of which you speak?