 Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni (Photo: Jennifer Lorenzini) trailed 4-0 but came back to claim the win. By: Cameron Sallaj The headline matchup coming into the Olympic Games between Canada's Rachel Homan and Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni was contested during Draw 5 at the Cortina Olympic Stadium. Both teams, ranked one and two in the world respectively, were coming off surprising losses in their morning games and looking for bounce back wins to avoid falling down the table. Controversy arose immediately in the match following Rachel Homan's opening stone of the game. The umpire standing at the hogline claimed Homan had touched the stone after letting go on the handle. This caused the stone to be removed from play when Homan had made the shot to set up for two. The situation adds further fuel to the discussion around hogline regulation, as just yesterday Sweden's Oskar Eriksson called out Canadian third Marc Kennedy for the same thing.
Homan went on to take one from the end, drawing to the rings after facing two. Over the next two ends, the Canadian side dominated the Swiss, picking up a steal of one in the second and stealing two in the third when Alina Paetz' final tap went long. After three, Canada held a commanding 4-0 lead. In the fourth, Alina Paetz scored Switzerland's first point of the game with an open hit. She then made a double takeout with her final rock in the fifth end which eventually led to a steal. Still, the Canadian side held a two-point lead heading to the second half and were in possession of last rock. Starting in six, Switzerland upped their game, forcing Canada to one in the sixth to gain back the hammer. Then in seven, they took advantage of a significant error by Homan when she was unable to remove any of the three Swiss rocks from the rings. This allowed Paetz a double for four, putting Switzerland right back in the game and giving them their first lead. With momentum on Tirinzoni's side, Homan drew the lid for a point in the eighth to tie the score in the game for the first time since it began. Then in nine, facing a pile of Swiss counters, Tracy Fleury and Rachel Homan each made two clutch shots to only allow Switzerland to score two. Paetz was light on her final draw, however, only counting one as Canada trailed 7-6 coming home. With an ideal two setup with a stone behind staggered guards, Alina Paetz neutralized the threat with a runback to only allow Canada to score one, forcing the game into an extra end. There, with Canada lying one on the side of the button, Paetz was clutch again in drawing right to the Olympic rings, counting one and securing the win for Switzerland 8-7. While neither team performed at their best, Swiss fourth Alina Paetz came up big when it mattered, improving her team's record to 3-1 in the round robin. Next, the Swiss side will be in tough as they take on Sweden's Anna Hasselborg who currently sit at the top of the table. The loss to Tirinzoni continues a downhill slide for Canada as they now sit near the bottom of the table at 1-3. The reigning world champions will need to get back in the win column in their next game against China to stay in the playoff race. Olympic Women's Standings - Draw 5 Sweden (Hasselborg): 4-0 Switzerland (Tirinzoni): 3-1 The United States (Peterson): 3-1 China (Wang): 2-1 Denmark (Dupont): 2-2 South Korea (Gim): 2-2 Great Britain (Jackson): 1-2 Canada (Homan): 1-3 Japan (Yoshimura): 1-3 Italy (Constantini): 0-4 |
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Manitoba's Kate Cameron (Photo: Curling Canada) announced on Monday that the team will look different for the new Olympic quadrennial.
