Einarson upends Homan to capture HearingLife Tour Challenge women’s title
CHARLOTTETOWN — Kerri Einarson and her Gimli, Man., club claimed the HearingLife Tour Challenge women’s title at the Bell Aliant Centre.
Einarson scored a single in the eighth end to edge Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan 5-4 in Sunday’s final to earn a sixth Grand Slam of Curling title.
It’s a full-circle moment for Einarson, who won the event’s inaugural Tier 2 title nine years ago.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Einarson said. “I know when I was coming up into the Slams and having to win that Tier 2 just to get into them. Now here we are winning Tier 1. Our hard work has really paid off.”
Einarson and third Val Sweeting were supported this week by second Dawn McEwen and lead Krysten Karwacki. McEwen filled in for Shannon Birchard, who is recovering from a knee injury. Karwacki, the team’s alternate, is in the lineup for Briane Harris, who is awaiting a decision on her appeal for testing positive for a banned substance.
Team Einarson even had a spare on the bench for the final with Mike McEwen subbing for coach Reid Carruthers.
“It’s great to have a win with them and they’ve been super spares for our team,” Einarson said. “We can’t thank them enough and truly appreciate all that they’ve done for our team.”
Team Einarson lost its first game of the tournament to Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini before rattling off six consecutive victories en route to the championship.
“We just kind of got into a rhythm,” Einarson said. “We did get some breaks. That’s curling for you though and you take advantage of those breaks that you get. That’s what we did all week. We put pressure on our opponents. I’m just so excited to be here.”
One of those breaks came during the sixth end of the final. Homan was up by one with the hammer, but the 15-time Grand Slam champion’s first skip stone went straight through the house untouched while her second hit and rolled away to give up a critical steal of two.
“I think Rachel wants those couple of throws back but again we put that pressure on her to make that hit and stick, which she just rolled a little bit too far,” Einarson said. “The end was looking like them to get a deuce and then after that it was like, OK, maybe we’ll get a force out of it. We just took advantage of those opportunities.”
The missed connections continued into the seventh as Homan had shot rock in her pocket, but her shooter rolled deep as Einarson took the hammer into the final frame all tied up 4-4.
Einarson made no mistake on her last rock and nailed the open hit for the winning point.
“It feels amazing to win with these girls and our performance this week,” Einarson said. “We played so well with everything going on. We were able to just come together as a team, support each other and go out there and have fun with the game that we absolutely love.”
Halifax’s Team Christina Black captured the Tier 2 women’s title with a 7-3 victory over Team Sayaka Yoshimura of Japan. Black earned an invitation to the WFG Masters in January.
Earlier Sunday, Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat took the HearingLife Tour Challenge men’s title after defeating Team Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., 10-3.
Saskatoon’s Team Rylan Kleiter defeated Team Magnus Ramsfjell 6-5 in an extra end in the Tier 2 final.
UP NEXT
The Grand Slam of Curling season resumes with the Co-op Canadian Open, Nov. 5-10, at the Silent Ice Center in Nisku, Alta.