Rinks skipped by Lauren Jenkyns and Dale Briske were knocking on the door at the 54th annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions.
The President's Cup playoff winners at the St. Albert Curling Club qualified for Tuesday's semifinals at Ellerslie. Scores were unavailable at press time.
Tonight's women's and men's finals start at 6 p.m.
The format for the 12-team tournament draws was a double knockout to determine Tuesday's semifinal pairings.
Jenkyns, third Kathy Piper, second Laurie Conrad and lead Christina Monk put themselves in position to win the fourth women's city crown for St. Albert since the women's draw was added to the Tournament of Champions in 1993.
Cathy King was the inaugural champion curling out of St. Albert, followed by the 2010 lineup of Piper at skip, Nicole Bellamy at third, Jackie Rae Greening at second and Conrad at lead and the 2014 foursome of Jenkyns, Piper, Conrad and lead Cindy Bobowik were also victorious.
Jenkyns was also the 2015 finalist and 2016 semifinalist.
Briske was shooting for his first trip to the men's final in his second appearance at cities in three years and third in six years.
Briske, third Les Ferguson, second Rick Dallyn and lead Grant Cook were also hoping to duplicate the recent run of success by Jamie King's Hootie and the Old Fish rink of St. Albert, city champions in 2013, 2011, 2006 and finalists in 2009.
Meanwhile, the mixed rink of Warren Sadoway, third Sandy Sadoway, second Tim Fell and lead Leanne Fell were unsuccessful in qualifying for Tuesday's semifinals.
The President's Cup champions competed at their first cities since 2006.
Stick nationals
The Canadian Stick Curling Championships are returning to St. Albert in 2018.
The 13th annual stick nationals, April 2 to 5, will feature 48 two-person teams.
St. Albert hosted nationals in 2014 and the winners of the 48-team competition were John Campbell and Tim Smith of Armstrong, B.C., against the Morinville duo of Ryan Meyer and Dennis Fitzgerald in the final.
This year's championship was staged last month at the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax, N.S. and the Alberta reps were Tony VanBrabant and Scott Holland of Morinville.
Provincials were played in St. Albert in February and the VanBrabant/Holland combination prevailed in the extra end of the final against Tom Steele and Al Schultz of St. Albert.
