News Masters

GUELPH, Ont. — New year, same Team Rachel Homan.

The Ottawa-based club has carried its incredible momentum from the first half of the season into 2025 at the WFG Masters, edging Winnipeg’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes 7-6 Wednesday night to extend its winning streak to 25 games and a 42-2 record overall.

That may imply dominance but it hasn’t been easy for Homan, who had to make a high-pressure draw in an extra end with sweepers Sarah Wilkes and Emma Miskew brushing the whole way and vice skip Tracy Fleury leaping into action to help drag the shooter into the eight-foot circle.

“That was a big game,” Homan said following her second straight win in the tournament. “They’re a really tough team in our pool. I’m really glad we were able to pull off the win here in the extra end.”

Homan reached all three Grand Slam women’s finals in the fall and won two titles sweeping through the Co-op Canadian Open and KIOTI National. Her most recent defeat came on Oct. 6 in the HearingLife Tour Challenge final against Team Kerri Einarson and the Gimli, Man., club just so happens to be Homan’s next opponent in the WFG Masters in unique fashion.

The Grand Slam of Curling held its first-ever draft for the WFG Masters last month where the top teams selected their pool opponents for round-robin play. As the No. 1 ranked team, Homan also got to choose her crossover pool opponent among the top four and selected third-seeded Einarson — after some egging on from Einarson, of course.

“If it was like a true snake draft, it would have made more sense but the way that the top four have to play each other, it makes it a little bit more challenging,” Homan said. “Our pool is tough, I mean, every team here (is). There’s no easy game. The top 16 are just pretty much curling 24/7 at this point, so it’s hard to beat anybody out here.”

It was a grind to start as well as Homan was forced to a single in the first and fell behind 3-1 as Lawes hit for three points in the second end. 

Homan rebounded with a hit for two in the third and went ahead 4-3 in the fourth as Lawes’s final rock flashed through untouched.

Lawes’s blank attempt in the fifth failed with her shooter sticking around in the house to count for the equalizer and hand the hammer back to Homan.

Although Homan was limited to another single in six, she stole a point in seven to make it 6-4 as Lawes didn’t want to risk giving up more by disrupting the cluster in the four-foot circle.

The plan worked out for Lawes (1-1) as she pulled off a double bump to score the equalizing two points in the eighth end to force the tantalizing extra frame.

“We definitely missed a few out there more than we would have liked,” Homan said. “(We) found a way to pull just enough together there as a team and were just trying to stay together as team.”

Meanwhile, Einarson also improved to a 2-0 record in pool play with a 5-2 victory over Japan’s Team Momoha Tabata (1-1).

Locked in a 1-1 tie at the break, Einarson took control in the second half scoring a deuce in the fifth, holding Tabata to another single in the sixth and adding another pair of points in the seventh.

“It feels really good to start off strong and get those wins,” Team Einarson third Val Sweeting said. “The girls are playing really good, catching on to the ice. We had a good battle out there. It was back and forth early but we got those deuces when we needed them, so that was nice.”

After Team Tabata ran out of rocks, the players organized the rocks at the end of the sheet and bowed to the ice before leaving the rink. It’s a tradition they’ve followed after every game they’ve played and it’s something Sweeting saw a lot in Japan when she played in the Karuizawa International tournament. 

“Just so much respect for the game and it’s great to see it here too,” Sweeting said. “I think it could rub off on all of us and just be super grateful out there.” 

Sweden’s Team Isabella Wranå beat South Korea’s Team Seung-youn Ha 6-3 and Team Satsuki Fujisawa of Japan also doubled up on Calgary’s Team Kayla Skrlik by an identical score.

Wrana and Fujisawa now hold 1-1 records while Ha and Skrlik slipped to 0-2 and must win their remaining round-robin games to stay in contention.

UP NEXT

Four draws are on tap Thursday at the Sleeman Centre beginning at 8 a.m. ET / 5 a.m. PT. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ca.

Live streaming of every game is available in free preview via HomeTeam.

Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ starts at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.

NOTES

The WFG Masters is the fourth Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday evening. If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be held Saturday morning. … The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday with both finals slated for Sunday. … A new rule is being tested this week where teams will lose the hammer if they blank two consecutive ends.