 Ontario's Rachel Homan (photo: Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver) defeated Alberta's Selena Sturmay to grab a bounce-back win at the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Halifax, Nova Scotia. By Connor Simms, The #1-ranked team in the world, Rachel Homan with Tracy Fleury at third, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes on the front end, are looking to get to the Olympics in Milan Cortina. Homan kicked off their week with back-to-back blowout victories over Manitoba's Kate Cameron, 16-5, and Nova Scotia's Christina Black, 8-2. They then faced a bit of a setback. They held a 31-0 record in their last 31 games against Canadian curling teams, not losing a game. That was until they faced off against Alberta's Kayla Skrlik last evening, losing in an extra end 8-7. They then faced off against Alberta's Selena Sturmay, with an opportunity to bounce back. Homan won the opening game, drawing to the button for the hammer. Homan came out firing with a three in the first end. Sturmay responded, getting their deuce back in the second. Homan then broke the game wide open with five in the third and a steal of two in the fourth end. Sturmay then added a deuce in the fifth and a steal of one in the sixth end. Homan then responded with one in the seventh end. Homan then stole one in the eighth to force handshakes and the 12-5 victory. Homan was firing this game with a team shooting percentage of 91%. Individually, Sarah was 91%, Emma was 95%, Tracy was 94%, and Rachel was 84%. This year's Olympic Trials have a bit of a different format. It is an 8-team 7-game round robin with the first seed going directly to the finals, while the 2nd and 3rd seeds face off in the semi-final. The finals will then have a best-of-three series to declare the champion. Homan now sits at a 3-1 record. In their next game, Homan will take on British Columbia's Corryn Brown on Tuesday at 9:00 am Atlantic Time (AT). On Tuesday evening, they will face Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes at 7:00 pm AT. They will wrap up the round robin on Wednesday against Manitoba's Kerri Einarson at 7:00 pm AT. Sarah and Tracy look to make their first career Olympic Games, with Tracy losing in the final of the trials in 2021. Emma looks to get back for the first time since 2018, while Rachel looks to return for a third time in a row, playing in the mixed doubles field in 2022. Catch the games on TSN (Canada) and TSN YouTube (Internationally). Catch the linescores on the CurlingZone Website. |
A five at the opening end of their first-ever match together in a major international competition sent Katie McMillan and Angus Bryce on their way to a dominant victory over the USA at the ACE & Company World Mixed Doubles Championships in Geneva.
