News National

OSHAWA, Ont. — Ottawa’s Rachel Homan remained perfect in round-robin play on the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling circuit this season after capping the preliminary stage of the National with an undefeated 4-0 record.

Homan rolled out to a 7-1 victory in six ends over Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque during the final round-robin draw Friday night at the General Motors Centre to secure the No. 1 seed for the women’s quarterfinals.

Team Homan topped the standings and are 12-0 in round-robin games through three Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events.

“That’s really good,” said Homan, who finished runner-up at the Tour Challenge and captured the Masters. “Some good confidence going into the playoffs and we’ve got to stay focused now going into the quarters.” 

Rocque kept her team in it early with a pair of incredible shots. The two-time world junior champion faced a wall of guards in the third end, already down 2-0, but made a nifty angle raise to get on the board with a single. 

Homan was threatening to score big in the fourth until Rocque pulled off a triple takeout and hold her opponent to “only” a deuce.

The pressure was too much, however, as Homan continued to press earning steals of one in the fifth and two in the sixth to bring out the handshakes.

“Our team played really well and made really big shots,” Homan said. “Kelsey was making some really great shot to get their one and it was close right to the end. She had a shot to stay in there at the end but fortunately, it just curled a little bit too much.” 

Rocque (2-2) is still in the mix and will play Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson in a tiebreaker Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Meanwhile, reigning Olympic and Scotties champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg was heavy on her final shot in the eighth end to give up a steal of two as Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., swiped a 6-4 victory. Both move onto the quarterfinals with 3-1 records. Fleury awaits the tiebreaker results as the No. 2 seed and Jones will play Saskatoon’s Stefanie Lawton.

“We just assumed she was going to make it, but it was a little bit heavy so we lucked out,” said Fleury, who finished second in the standings thanks to a great draw to the button total. “We thought it would get us a good position in the tiebreaker or something but to be ranked second is pretty good.”

Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland broke a four-all tie with a five-ender in the sixth during a 9-5 victory over American Jamie Sinclair. Tirinzoni, the Tour Challenge Tier 1 winner, improved to a 2-2 record to stay in contention while Sinclair is out at 0-4. Tirinzoni plays Kristy McDonald of Winnipeg in the second tiebreaker. 

Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., stole one in the sixth and two in the seventh to win 6-3 over EunJung Kim of South Korea. Middaugh plays Edmonton’s Val Sweeting in the quarterfinals. Kim missed the cut at 1-3. 

The women’s quarterfinals take place at 4 p.m. ET. Watch on Sportsnet.

The National is the third stop and second major of the 2015-16 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and runs through to Sunday evening at the General Motors Centre. Previously a men’s invitational, the National expanded this year to include a women’s division for the first time in the event’s history.