Get to know the women’s teams competing in Milwaukee

For most curlers, curling at the USA National Championships is basically impossible. Even for the best curlers at clubs around the country, finding themselves on championship ice with the likes of Tabitha Peterson, Cory Thiesse, Elizabeth Cousins, and others, requires a lot of resources. For those not on a high-performance team, qualifying for the USA Curling National Championship necessitates the ability to travel to get into competitive events, to be able to afford travel and competition in those events, and most importantly, to be good enough to win games at those events.

The club national championship does not have the same barriers in place. To qualify, all you have to do is win your regional playdown. Easy peasy… right?

The logistics may be easier to qualify for that championship, but the competition to get there is still incredibly stiff. A lot has to go right to get to nationals. Even more has to go right to be crowned Club National Champions.

For 12 women’s teams descending on Milwaukee Curling Club, they’re going to be looking for a lot to go right. The field has past champions, reigning national champions at club and arena events, as well as first-time club nationals participants. It’s going to be a fun week ahead, so let’s get to know a little more about the teams taking the ice in Wisconsin, and how to follow along.

How To Watch

It appears that Milwaukee Curling club will broadcast all games on their Twitch channels. I would not be surprised if games were co-streamed on USA Curling’s YouTube, but nothing has been announced.

I will update this post with any new updates as I hear them.

Draw Schedule

Milwaukee Curling Club is a 5-sheet club which means two teams will always have a bye. The full draw schedule can be found here. The first draw of the women’s championship begins at 3pm CT on Wednesday, March 26 and concludes with the finals at 1pm CT on Sunday, March 30.

The 3 top teams from each pool move on to the playoffs, with the top seed in each pool getting a direct bye to the semifinals.

Meet the Teams

Teams are listed in 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

Podoll – Fargo-Moorhead Curling Club (Dakota)

2025 will be Ann Podoll’s 3rd appearance at the club national championships in the last 10 years. She’s got a pretty fantastic track record in the previous two, including a gold and silver medal while boasting a 13-3 record.

After last year’s silver finish on her home ice, I expect the team to come out firing. They were slated to play a best-of-5 against the only other team registered in the Dakota Territory playdowns (a past nationals competitor) and swept the series, outscoring their opponents 27-5 in the three games.

Aubrey – Coyotes Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)

With the winners of nationals in 2024 going to the Everest event, so much focus was placed on the championship game last year between Podoll and Schroeder, but those aren’t the only 2024 medalists returning for the 2025 National Championship. Debra Aubrey’s rink from Coyotes Curling Club had an incredible week in Fargo, going undefeated in pool play and losing in a tight game to eventual gold medalist, Team Schroeder.

Team Aubrey returns to nationals this year after a fantastic finish at the MoPac playdowns against Team Walsh. They’ll be looking to improve on last year’s bronze medal finish.

Segovia – Curling Club of Houston (Mid-America)

This is not the first time this year I’ve had the opportunity to write about Team Segovia in a national championship preview this season. The only arena-based team in the field, the Houston rink came away from the 2024 Arena National Championships in October with Segovia having won the two previous arena championships as a skip. Julie also won silver at the 2025 Senior Women’s National Championship.

At the 2023 Club National Championships in Wausau, Team Segovia went 3-2 in pool play, losing in a tiebreaker game to eventual gold medalist, Sere Politano. The curlers out of Texas had an incredible come from behind run at the MACA playdowns, helped in part by a wild 7-ender in the 7th end during round robin play. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind finding a way to hang a 7 in Milwaukee.

Bera – Potomac Curling Club (Grand National)

I believe this will be the first time at club nationals for every member of Team Bera with the exception of Laura Yee, who played 2nd at the 2016 event in Bismarck. As their second time through round robin play was wrapping up at GNCC playdowns, it looked like Nicole Bera might be on the outside looking in. But the team rallied and managed to use the two-loss provision to their advantage, hanging big scores in both elimination games.

Don’t be surprised to see some big scores in either direction in Team Bera’s games. The winning team hung a score of at least 4 in each of their final 4 games at playdowns, so if you’re looking for a team with some fun ends to watch, the team from the Potomac Curling Club might be your go-to.

Brown – Granite Curling Club of Seattle (Pacific Northwest)

Shannon Brown’s final at the Pacific Northwest playdown was a battle. The team capitalized on every opportunity to make a big score when they needed it despite huge amounts of pressure from their opponents and found themselves needing to book travel to nationals for the second straight year. Team Brown made their nationals debut in Fargo last year, going 1-4 in pool play. Shannon Brown will have plenty of supporters in attendance in Milwaukee, with her dad, uncle, and cousin representing Team Wright on the men’s side.

Hansen – Milwaukee Curling Club (Host)

In the current format, the host of club nationals receives a spot in the championship. On the women’s side, Milwaukee Curling Club had one team sign up to claim their spot, and it’s a team that has coming together specifically for this event. I wouldn’t just count them out, though. They recently finished with a 2nd event win at a warmup women’s spiel and could be a challenge for any of the teams, playing on their home ice. If there ever is a scenario where Hansen can play the defending national champions, we’d get to see a Battle of the Sisters as vice Alexis Whitman’s sibling, Sidney, skips Team Schroeder.

Pool B

Schroeder – Madison Curling Club (Wisconsin)

The reigning champions are back to defend their championship. Last season, Team Schroeder had to dig deep and rally to secure both the regional and national championships and earn their right to compete at the Everest North American Curling Club Championships. This year’s Wisconsin playdown was a little less stressful, with the team going 5-1 in the round robin to secure the right to defend their title.

Competing at a national championship is special enough on its own, but it’s a little bit of a family affair for Team Schroeder this year. As already mentioned, skip Sidney’s sister, Alexis, is competing with Team Hansen in the other pool, while lead Lois Buckingham’s gets to share the nationals experience with her dad, Will, who is representing Wisconsin on the men’s side.

Stolt – St. Paul Curling Club (Minnesota)

As far as I can tell, this is the first trip to club nationals for Maureen Stolt’s rink, but that’s not to say they lack any credentials. Stolt, with husband Peter, won the US Mixed Doubles National Championship in 2013 and went on to win three additional silver medals over the next five years. Lead Shelley Dropkin hopes for club nationals to be the third national championship won by a Dropkin this year after son Korey won both the men’s and mixed doubles titles.

As with Wisconsin, the playdown only had 4 teams, but it featured a very strong junior team from Bemidji as well as past Minnesota club nationals representative Kelsey Ostrowski. The playdown will no doubt have prepared the St. Paul squad to make a deep run at club nationals.

Benson – Detroit Curling Club (Great Lakes)

While this is not a debut for Julie Benson at the club championships, the last time she curled in the event was 8 years ago in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Detroit rink qualified for nationals after a roller coaster of a playdown. While they were down 4-1 halfway through the final, Julie Benson made a couple spectacular draws to help secure a big steal and ultimately the win.

Walsh – San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club (Mountain Pacific)

Every year, there is at least one team in the field representing a runner-up from a regional playdown. That “wild card” team represents the region who had the most entries in their playdown. This year, MoPac, the Pacific Northwest, and Great Lakes had the same number of entries, with the tie being broken by number of entries in the previous season which resulted in the MoPac region getting the extra berth.

Walsh makes a return to her 3rd consecutive club nationals after going 5-3 at playdowns. The team’s only losses came to 2024 Arena National Championship gold medalists, Team Asis along with two losses to the Aubrey rink from Coyotes. The San Francisco rink figures to be a challenge for any team at the 4-seed, having gone 5-5 at in pool play at the last two club nationals.

Yaple – Chicago Curling Club (Midwest)

Pool B features two teams who were the lone entries for their region and were able to qualify for nationals uncontested. The first of those is Team Yaple of Chicago Curling Club, but this short drive north along Lake Michigan will not be their first time at this championship. All 4 members have been a part of various teams representing Chicago Curling Club, including a 4th place finish from vice Sara Gaum when she skipped the team 2019. Haley Yaple went 2-3 at the 2023 championship.

Dueber – Anchorage Curling Club (Alaska)

Team Dueber is the other “uncontested” qualifier from Pool B. Kathryn Dueber & Co. also represented Alaska last year in Fargo. They went 1-4 in pool play in last year’s event, getting dropped into the same pool with Sarah Walsh as well as the top 2 teams from the tournament, Schroeder and Podoll. That experience should be very valuable going into Milwaukee.

My Picks

Gold: Podoll (Fargo-Moorhead)
Silver: Schroeder (Madison)
Bronze: Segovia (Houston)

As with my picks for the arena national championships, it’s important to note that these are nothing more than my guesses. It’s tough to pick winners for any level of curling, much less a level where there is rarely much crossover play between teams prior to the national championship.

With that said, I think Ann Podoll and team are on a mission after being on the brink of victory a year ago on their home ice. This time, they travel to Schroeder’s home state, and I would not be surprised to see them return the favor. Would I be surprised to see the Madison rink repeat? No, but their wins last year required some very timely clutch shots, and it’s awfully hard to win any championship like that, much less two in a row.

I think we’ll see some clear stratification throughout the event, especially as the pool play begins to wrap up, and it’s hard to have any idea on who to pick for the third podium spot with strong teams like Aubrey, Stolt, and Segovia. I’m going with Segovia as the team has shown a lot of grit all season and Julie has been all over podiums all season, it seems.

Ultimately, though, it’s anybody’s guess who will take home hardware from Milwaukee. I, for one, am grateful it’s decided on the ice and not in some silly newsletter.

Up Next: Men’s Preview

The preview of the men’s teams will be coming on Sunday, and if you haven’t been following along, you’re going to see some familiar names from national (and international!) events on the ice.