Ontario women getting closer to clinching first place
SALMON ARM, BC, February 5...Almost Hom-an cooled out!
That's where Ontario, skipped by Rachel Homan of Ottawa, sits, as far as the round robin goes, after defeating defending champion Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg, 7-4 this afternoon in action at the Sunwave Centre during the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors.
It was a battle between the two pre-event favourites, and through four ends, it was exactly that, a 1-1 dogfight. But in the fifth end, Homan was able to count three for a 4-1 lead and never looked back. Her Ottawa Curling Club team took two more in the seventh, then stole one in the eighth end before running Lawes out of rocks in the 10th.
The victory moved Homan to 8-1, a game ahead of Alberta (Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge), which moved to 7-2 after a 6-2 win over Saskatchewan. Lawes fell to 5-4, her second consecutive loss after dropping an 8-6 shocker to Yukon Wednesday evening.
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| Ontario skip, Rachel Homan at the 2009 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors in Salmon Arm, BC. |
Should Homan win two of her three games remaining in the round robin, she'll clinch first place and a bye to the final on Sunday. Ontario defeated Alberta, 5-4, earlier in the week.
"It was a pretty good game, pretty close actually," said the 19-year-old Homan, the 2007 Canada Winter Games gold medallist who has enjoyed some success on the women's tour, against the likes of reigning world champion Jennifer Jones, veteran Sherry Middaugh and China's Bingyu Wang, runner-up at the 2008 Ford world women's.
"When we got that three, it really put us ahead in the game and put us in defense mode. I know there were a lot of people watching that game, so we're pretty happy to win that."
About the three in the fifth end... "It actually didn't really set up well at the beginning, to be honest. We didn't make a few shots early in the end but we made a nice freeze, then a hit and roll. She (Lawes) had a tough shot, a double, but didn't quite make it, so we had a shot for three. We were in really good shape after that."
'We're in good spirits, doing well," she continued. "We're getting tons of emails from everywhere. We're really happy."
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| Ontario third, Emma Miskew at the 2009 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors in Salmon Arm, BC. |
There's a five-way tie for third, at 5-4, amongst British Columbia, Manitoba, Northern Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec. In other Draw 14 games, Quebec (Kristen Richard of Lachine) beat Northwest Territories (Kate Maksymowich of Yellowknife), 5-2 while Nova Scotia (Marie Christianson of Halifax) stopped a three-game win streak by Yukon (Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse), 10-6.
In men's play, co-leaders Northern Ontario (Dylan Johnston of Thunder Bay) and Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown) were idle. But Alberta (Kevin Yablonski of Calgary) dropped a 7-4 decision to Saskatchewan (Mike Armstrong of Saskatoon) to fall to 6-3, the same record as New Brunswick (Steve Burgess of Fredericton).
Other scores saw Yukon (Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse) win its third game by edging Nova Scotia (Paul Dexter of St. Andrews), 6-4, with steals in the ninth and 10th ends; Quebec (Andrew Leigh of Lachine) whipped Northwest Territories (Colin Miller of Yellowknife), 13-4, while Manitoba (Sam Good of Winnipeg) kept his playoff hopes alive with a 10-4 win over Ontario (Bowie Abbis-Mills of Waterloo).
British Columbia (Bryan Kedziora of Maple Ridge), Manitoba and Saskatchewan are all at 5-4 behind the top four.
The round robin continues this evening at 7:00 pm PT.
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