 Coming off what was arguably curling's finest single-season team performance in 2023-2024, Team Rachel Homan (photo: Team Homan) picked up exactly where it left off on Sunday morning, winning the 2024 PointsBet Invitational. Homan, flanked by vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and coach Brendan Bottcher, secured the title with an 8-3 victory over No. 10 seed Team Kayla Skrlik (Calgary) in the final. The championship victory nets the Ottawa-based squad, which was seeded first in the 16-team field, a $50,000 payday after winning a tidy four-straight games to claim the top prize at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary. "It's nice that it's not a long grind to start off your first event," said Homan. "You can ease into the season and it's really nice." It's familiar territory for the current Women's World champions, who defeated Team Kerri Einarson (Gimli, Man.) 9-7 in the 2023 PointsBet Invitational final. "This event is awesome," said Homan. "It's been great to us in the last couple years. The team played really well and I'm really proud of playing a really solid game out there." The 2024 title victory has some history to it as well. It cements Team Homan as the first women's repeat champion in the PointsBet Invitational's young history, as well as the only No. 1 seed to win the crown in either men's or women's play. Homan opened the final with three straight singles on the scoreboard to take an early lead, but Skrlik did have her opportunities to score, including a difficult angle-runback in the second end, but it resulted in a steal of one for Homan. It wouldn't be until the fourth end that Team Skrlik would break through and secure a deuce, cutting the lead to 3-2, but that's as close as it would get. The Calgary skip faced increasingly difficult shots with her final stones, including two attempts at a difficult tap back in the seventh end that could have shifted the game's momentum. Both attempts missed, resulting in a steal of three for Team Homan, proving to be the match's most fatal blow. "That tap, if she makes it, it's a different scoreboard for sure," said Homan. "A little bit unlucky there, but they played a really solid game. It was tight all the way through until, you know, sometimes one shot makes a big difference." Though skip Kayla Skrlik was disappointed by the loss, she knows the strength of her opposition played a role in the loss. "We got down on Rachel a little bit early," said Skrlik. "It's hard to battle back against that team. It was just tough out there." Skrlik also agreed that the tapback attempts in the seventh end were a culminating point of the final. "I had two chances to make it," said Skrlik. "Normally, when I have two chances, it's pretty OK on the second time around. We just came up a little bit too tight. Just unfortunate." The Skrlik team - third Margot Flemming, second Ashton Skrlik, lead/vice-skip Geri-Lynn Ramsay, alternate Crystal Webster, and coach Shannon Kleibrink round out the lineup — will take home $26,000 for their efforts as finalists. |
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Rachel Homan (photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) and Xenia Schwaller both bounce back with wins in B-side action and will face-off Friday for a playoff spot.
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