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Homan holds off Harrison at BOOST National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Rachel Homan picked up her first win of the BOOST National during Draw 5 Wednesday at the Essar Centre.

The reigning world champion from Ottawa scored a dicey 8-4 victory over Jacqueline Harrison of Mississauga in a repeat of last season’s Ontario Scotties final.

While Harrison has had Homan’s number recently taking four of their past five meetings prior to the match, it was the six-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title winner who slid through with the dub this time.

“It’s always a battle when we play Team Harrison,” Team Homan lead Lisa Weagle said. “That was a close game. It came right down to the last rock and we felt fortunate to come out with a win on that.”

It was neck-and-neck from the start as the teams exchanged pairs of points in the opening couple ends. Homan potted another pair in the third, Harrison settled for a single in four and stole one in five to make it all square again at 4-4.

Homan took two again in the sixth and swiped a point in seven to cushion her lead. However, it still came down to Harrison’s last shot and she misfired to concede one more.

Weagle cited the five-rock rule — preventing stones in the free-guard zone from being eliminated from play until five rocks have been thrown — as the reason things remained tight down to the wire despite the three-point difference.

“Even when you have a lead it’s kind of precarious because a missed shot here or there and a really great made shot and all of a sudden you’re looking at a couple,” Weagle said. “I thought it was a really well-played game and happy to come out with a win.”

Both teams now hold 1-1 records with two round-robin games remaining each.

Jestyn Murphy, daughter of Team Harrison third Janet Murphy, is making her Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series debut with the squad this week subbing for second Stephanie Matheson.

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Elsewhere, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting and Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones climbed to 2-0 records

Sweeting, this season’s Tour Challenge Tier 1 winner, edged Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., 3-2 while Jones scored four in the eighth to lift her team to a 7-3 victory over Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque.

Both Flaxey and Rocque fell to 0-2 records and need to turn things around quickly to avoid elimination.

Calgary’s Chelsea Carey picked up a 7-4 win over Bingyu Wang of China. Carey and Wang are even at 1-1 records.

In the lone men’s division game, Pat Simmons (1-1) and his Winnipeg squad secured a 7-4 win over Toronto’s John Epping (1-1).

The BOOST National is the third event and second major of the 2017-18 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and features 15 of the best men’s teams and 15 of the best women’s teams from around the globe.

Round-robin play runs through to Friday with the top eight on each side qualifying for the weekend playoffs.

TV coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet and online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and gsoc.yaretv.com (international).

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