P.E.I. curler excited to join junior women's world champs for 2018 season

P.E.I. curler Lauren Lenentine is joining the Canadian and world junior championship team from Nova Scotia for the upcoming curling season.

Lenentine, who curls out of the Cornwall Curling Club, will begin competing with the Kaitlyn Jones rink at the end of April when they travel to Calgary for the Champions Cup.

She will replace third Kristin Clarke, whose junior eligibility has expired.

"I'm really excited, they're clearly a really good team so to have this opportunity is amazing and I'm so excited to have a new adventure," Lenentine said.

She's very dedicated and we know that she's a good person on and off the ice and she just brings that chemistry that we need for the team. Kaitlyn Jones

Lenentine said she wants to win a Canadian and world junior championship and, at 17, she'll have three years to do it.

"That has always been my goal so I'm looking forward to trying to achieve it," she said.

Lenentine accompanied Team Canada as an alternate at the world championships in Scotland earlier this month.

Jones said after the tournament, she and her teammates Clarke, Karlee Burgess and Lindsey Burgess knew they wanted Lenentine join the team full-time.

"We wanted to do it as a test run to see if she would work well with us next year and we thought she was a great fit," Jones said.

"She's very reserved and very calm and I think that is something we need on the team. I know myself I tend to get worked up over small things and Kristin was very good at calming me down and I think Lauren will do the same for us."

The fact she's a skilled player with two P.E.I. junior titles to her credit doesn't hurt, either, Jones said.

"We also think that Lauren is a really good player. She's very dedicated and we know that she's a good person on and off the ice and she just brings that chemistry that we need for the team."

Attending university in Halifax

Lenentine will be moving to Halifax in the fall to attend university and begin her "new adventure."

She said she will miss her P.E.I. team, but will always consider herself an Islander.

"It's hard, we've played together since 2009 which is a really long time so it's going to be different obviously," she said. "But we've become really good friends over the years so I'm excited to carry our friendship forward and they understand so it's all good."

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