CHARLOTTETOWN — It’s only the first weekend of October but Rachel Homan and her Ottawa-based team are already off to their third consecutive championship game this season.
After winning the Shorty Jenkins Classic and PointsBet Invitational back-to-back, Homan will now play in the women’s final of the HearingLife Tour Challenge at the Bell Aliant Centre.
Homan advanced with a 4-3 victory over Winnipeg’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes during Saturday’s semifinals.
“It feels really good,” said Emma Miskew, who throws second stones for Team Homan. “It’s been a grind. Three of us still don’t practice ice at home, so it was nice coming in from another event and having a lot of good throws. We’re still not perfect, but we’re making enough shots, enough big shots, to win and it’s been great.”
Team Homan will face Team Kerri Einarson after the Gimli, Man., club edged Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa 6-4 in an extra end.
“It was a great game,” Einarson said. “It was a good battle out there. It was super loud in the eighth end. It was so loud on my first one and my last. We forced them then went to the extra and I had an open hit for the win, so that’s always nice.”
Homan looks to follow up on an amazing season last year winning Canadian and world championships plus two Grand Slam of Curling titles. Homan is already out to a 17-1 mark this year following the win over Lawes.
After starting with the hammer, Homan converted to score a deuce in the second end. It was only singles on the board from there as Homan held a 3-2 lead in the seventh but misfired both of her skip stones as Lawes stole one to tie it. Still, Homan retained the hammer coming home and didn’t need to throw her last as Lawes was unable to grab shot rock for another potential steal.
“It was a really good game, lots of shots made by both teams,” said Miskew, who has won a record 15 Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles alongside Homan. “The frost was really creeping in, so it was getting a little bit challenging and thankfully, we were able to pull it out in the end.
“We were hoping we weren’t going to have a super precision draw on the last end because it was hard to know what kind of speed that we’d need to throw on it but I think we could have made a good guess and it’s nice to come out with the win.”
Team Einarson has faced adversity to start the year. Second Shannon Birchard has yet to play as she recovers from a knee injury while lead Briane Harris awaits a decision on her appeal for testing positive for a banned substance. Dawn McEwen is subbing for Birchard this week while alternate Krysten Karwacki is filling in for Harris during her provisional suspension.
The two skips have faced each other six times previously in Grand Slam finals with Homan holding a 4-2 advantage.
Einarson believes putting pressure on Homan and controlling the front will be key, but her team is also focused on its own game.
“Just keep doing what we’ve been doing, go out there and enjoy ourselves,” said Einarson, who has won five Grand Slam titles. “We’re in another Slam final, this is where we always want to be, so we’re just going to out there, embrace it and have fun.”
Halifax’s Team Christina Black and Team Sayaka Yoshimura of Japan will square off in the Tier 2 women’s final with the winner receiving an invitation to the WFG Masters in January.
Watch live Sunday on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet+ at 3:30 p.m. AT / 2:30 p.m. ET.
The Tier 1 men’s final between Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., and Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat kicks off Championship Sunday coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ at 11 a.m. AT / 10 a.m. ET. Saskatoon’s Team Rylan Kleiter and Team Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway meet in the Tier 2 men’s final.
