Krista McCarville and John Epping will skip their Northern Ontario teams into national curling championships after play wrapped up Sunday in Thunder Bay, the Port Arthur Curling Centre serving as host venue for the 2025 NOCA Men's & Women's Provincial Championships.

One of three teams to finish round robin play with a record of 5-1, the McCarville Fort William Curling Club rink that includes Andrea Kelly (vice), Ashley Sippala (second), lead Kendra Lilly and alternate Sarah Potts needed back to back wins on Sunday to emerge as NOCA champs yet again.

Team McCarville bested the Robyn Despins (Fort William CC) foursome 9-4 in the morning semi-final before slipping past Emma Artichuk (NCUCC) 6-5 in the final, scoring one with the hammer in the tenth and final end.

Along with Lilly, a graduate of Lockerby Composite, the women's final featured plenty of Sudbury content with the Artichuk rink rounded off with a nickel city trio of Megan Smith, Jamie Smith and Lauren Rajala.

Trailing 4-2 after five ends of play, McCarville scored once with last stone in the sixth end and followed up with a steal of one in both seven and eight, putting her team in great position for the win.

Despite that loss, the Northern Credit Union Community Centre will be represented at the Montana's Brier in Kelowna after John Epping teamed with local brothers Jacob and Tanner Horgan and lead Ian McMillan, ploughing their way through the 13-team men's field last week.

Team Epping secured the "A" Qualifier berth directly in the final by stringing together victories over Gary Weiss (Port Arthur CC - 9-3), Dylan Johnston (Fort William CC - 11-4) and clubmates Sandy MacEwan, Dustin Montpellier, Luc Ouimet and Lee Toner, 10-2.

Punctuating their run with an exclamation mark, the quartet that have now worked their way to the #12 ranking in the world needed only five ends to dispose of the Dylan Johnston crew for a second time, scoring in each of the first four ends en route to a 10-2 win.

The 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts sees the McCarville rink remain in Thunder Bay as the Fort William Gardens welcomes 18 teams from February 14th to the 23rd while the men duke it out in British Columbia from February 28th to March 9th.