Team Koltun's season couldn't have gotten off to a better start.

The Yukon women's curling rink downed Team Lawton from Saskatoon 6-3 at The Shoot-Out at the Saville Centre in Edmonton this morning.

This afternoon, Sarah Koltun's rink will take on Team Eberle from Regina in their second match of the season.

The World Curling Tour bonspiel features a 32-team women's field teeming with talent, vying for a winner's purse of $5,000.

Koltun spoke with the Star this morning from Edmonton, and said her rink was thrilled to snatch victory from Stefanie Lawton, one of three Olympics trials teams attending the tournament.

"It was pretty exciting for us,” said Koltun, 20. "We had pre-game jitters like we were at nationals, and it was just our first game of the year. We were just hoping to go out there and give them a good game, so coming up with the win was just a bonus.

"It gives us a taste of what we're capable of, because we all know we can even play better than we did today. It was definitely a good start to the season.”

With the win, Team Koltun remains in the A pool of the triple-elimination tournament.

Koltun said they do not have a specific goal at The Shoot-Out, except to get their brooms sweeping again.

"We're just focusing on getting our new team systems down and working out the kinks as a new team,” she said.

Team Koltun added Ottawa curler Andrea Sinclair to its ranks this summer, in a push to represent the Yukon at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in February.

The rink now consists of Sinclair at lead, Patty Wallingham at second, and Koltun's long-time teammate Chelsea Duncan at third.

Until their arrival in Edmonton Monday, the team was unable to hit the ice for training.

"Basically, the preparation has been all off-ice,” coach Lindsay Moldowan said today. "We hadn't hit the ice with Andrea until this past Monday. It's been a lot of getting to know each other and getting Andrea up to speed on our team systems.”

Moldowan is in Whitehorse, keeping tabs on her team as they compete in Alberta.

She said she was impressed with the girls' play after only a few hours on the ice together this season.

"This was their first game and I'm sure there was some nerves at play, considering that we were playing one of the top women's teams in Canada,” Moldowan said.

She said Team Koltun always feels jitters when facing the country's top curling rinks.

"We don't underestimate the top teams,” she said.

The coach said she is urging her players to simplify their game and learn from this experience.

"We didn't go in with a ‘we need to win X amount of games attitude' because we are a new team and it is the first bonspiel of the season,” said Moldowan.

"We just want to go in and learn it as a learning experience.”

Koltun pinned her first draw to the button to earn hammer for the first end against Lawton.

She said her rink's first game with Sinclair has whet their high expectations.

"The transition has been really smooth and things have been moving the way we want them to,” Koltun explained. "It's actually going even better than we've expected.”

The tournament will finish with the finals Sunday at 4 p.m.

NOTES: Whitehorse skip Thomas Scoffin, who curls with the University of Alberta Golden Bears, will square off with Canadian legend Kevin Martin this evening. The match will mark the debut of Martin's restructured rink, which now features Dave Nedohin at third. The men's side consists of 16 teams vying for $18,000.