SASKATOON — Delaney Strouse and her American team are off to their first winning streak in the Grand Slam of Curling.
Strouse earned her first top-tier win in the series Wednesday at the WFG Masters by defeating Team Stefania Constantini from Italy 5-2 and made it two in a row Thursday night with a 5-1 victory over Winnipeg’s Team Kate Cameron.
Team Strouse, who are now 2-1 in the major tournament, made their series debut in the Tier 2 division of the HearingLife Tour Challenge in October and moved into the top ranks for last month’s KIOTI National but went winless at 0-4.
“It feels really good,” Strouse said. “We struggled last Slam just trying to put it all together. We had a great practice right after and we were ready to come back focused.”
Strouse entered the season ranked 28th in the world — well back of the top 16 cutoff line to qualify for entry into Grand Slam events — but two title wins and a pair of runner-up results early in the year vaulted them up into the top flight.
“It’s just amazing,” said Strouse, who is currently 16th on the world rankings. “Honestly, it was everybody’s dream [playing in Grand Slams] going into this and going into the season we had goals of making the Tier 2 Slam.
“As soon as we started having a really strong start to the season winning our first event, getting second in our second event, we were like, ‘No, we can do this, this year.’ So we changed our goals pretty quickly and it’s been really great to meet them.”
Team Satsuki Fujisawa from Japan also improved to a 2-1 record in the WFG Masters following a 7-6 extra-end victory over Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones.
Fujisawa had a high-pressure draw against four counters with the last rock of the game and needed to get into the four-foot circle but made it look easy landing on the button to boot.
“We’re so nervous when Satsuki throws the last shot but we made it,” said Chinami Yoshida, who throws third for Team Fujisawa. “It’s kind of like a team shot. I really like to make that team shot because we had a tough loss in the last Grand Slam against Team Jones, we missed that last shot but today we made it, so I’m so happy.”
Team Fujisawa, who beat Strouse 5-3 to start the tournament Tuesday, rebounded from a close 6-5 loss Wednesday to South Korea’s Team Eun-Ji Gim.
“We’re very good at playing with fresh minds every game and enjoying every game,” Yoshida said. “We’re always smiling.”
Jones, who won the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 1 women’s championship, also now holds a 2-1 record.
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Meanwhile, Team Gim continue to carry the momentum from their KIOTI National title victory. Gim climbed to a 3-0 round-robin record and clinched a playoff spot with a 7-3 decision against Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man.
Team Gim, who became the first club from South Korea to capture a Grand Slam major title, have now won 10 consecutive games in the series.
The reigning WFG Masters champion Einarson dropped to a 1-2 record and must win her final preliminary game Friday against Strouse to keep her title defence running.
Team Tabitha Peterson of the United States beat Constantini 7-2 to remain in the mix at 1-2. Constantini fell to 0-3 and has been eliminated from playoff contention.
UP NEXT
The WFG Masters continues Friday with Draw 13 at 9 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. local time.
Broadcast coverage resumes with Draw 14 at 12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. local time on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ (Canada).
NOTES
The WFG Masters is the third Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday evening. The top eight teams in both divisions advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals. If necessary, tiebreakers will be played Saturday morning to determine the final playoff spots. … The semifinals are also scheduled for Saturday with both finals on tap Sunday.
