News Masters

TRURO, N.S. — Ottawa’s Rachel Homan advanced to the Masters women’s semifinals after scoring three points in the eighth end to defeat Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones 8-4 Saturday night in the quarterfinals.

The No. 1 seed Homan, who is now 5-0 in the tournament, had a couple of early Halloween treats with a deuce in the second and a three-ender in four while holding Jones to singles in three and five to lead 5-2. However, Jones rode the steal train swiping points in six and seven to close within one coming home. 

Homan looks to win her third Masters title in four seasons and faces Winnipeg’s Kristy McDonald in the semifinals. McDonald topped home-province hero Mary-Anne Arsenault of Halifax 5-2.

“This is our second Slam we’ve qualified in as a team, we lost the (Tour Challenge) quarterfinals in Newfoundland,” Team McDonald third Kate Cameron explained. “We kind of took it game-by-game so it was big for us.” 

Defending champion Val Sweeting of Edmonton scored a 7-3 victory over Russia’s Anna Sidorova to advance. Sweeting had a strong second half breaking a 3-3 tie with a deuce in seven and added a steal of two in eight to close out the game.

“We didn’t play quite as well in yesterday’s game so we wanted to come out strong,” Sweeting said. “Definitely some good team shots out there, Sidorova was playing really well but we made the good one when we had to. I thought that the team came together really well and we … kept it close and then had a really good second half so that was key and we definitely want to carry that into tomorrow morning.” 

Sweeting and her crew have been up to their usual tour shenanigans, this time involving cardboard cutouts of Brad Gushue and Eve Muirhead.

“We walked by them and saw them and you’ve got to have some fun,” Sweeting said with a laugh. “We got some poses with Brad, got Eve to the gym there. We’re just trying to have fun and things you can do when everything is going well with the team.”

Sweeting’s semifinal opponent is Kerri Einarson of East St. Paul, Man. Einarson topped Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni 10-7 as the Tour Challenge Tier 2 winner took down the reigning Tier 1 champion in a high-scoring affair. 

“It’s been wonderful and a great experience,” Einarson said. “We came in here just open-minded and just wanting to curl good. We finally put together a good game tonight.”

After Einarson scored four in the second to go ahead 4-1, Tirinzoni bounced right back with a five-ender in the third. Einarson took two in the fourth to tie it 6-6. The teams alternated singles in five and six and Einarson put on the pressure to steal one in seven and swiped two in eight when Tirinzoni’s final shot came up light. 

“Well, when you get four you do not want to give five back but sometimes that happens,” Einarson said. “But we rebounded and we just kept our composure and came out with the W.” 

The men’s semifinals feature Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock against Jim Cotter, of Vernon, B.C., and Calgary’s Kevin Koe playing Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen. Watch the all-Canadian men’s and women’s semifinals live Sunday morning on Sportsnet at 8 a.m. ET / 5 a.m. PT.

The Masters is the first major and second event on the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season with semifinals and finals taking place Sunday at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre.