News Canadian Open

YORKTON, Sask. — The one that got away from Ottawa’s Rachel Homan came back and in record fashion.

Homan, who fell to Scotland’s Eve Muirhead in last year’s Meridian Canadian Open women’s final, was victorious this time around defeating Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones 8-7 Sunday to capture an unprecedented third consecutive Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling women’s championship this season.

The team of Homan, third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle collected $25,000 CAD plus 12 points in the Rogers Grand Slam Cup standings.

“We’re pretty excited,” said Homan, who captured her fifth Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title to tie Jones for the most among women’s skips. “It hasn’t been done before so I’m excited to keep rolling. Excited for our Christmas break.”

Jones opened with the hammer and made a tap to score two in the first. Her team struggled through the second end and Homan capitalized making a nose hit for three to take the lead. Homan had two stones parked together in the house during the third end and Jones bumped them both out to match with a three-count of her own to pull back ahead 5-3. 

Homan held shot rock in the fourth end and attempted a runback to score three points but missed and had to settle for the single, however, back-to-back steals in five and six put her up 6-5 using the five-rock rule to her advantage.

“Yeah it’s huge and it’s a lot of fun,” she said. “It’s a lot of rocks in play. It makes the game more interesting for the fans and you can’t ever let up when you’re playing as well so we love it.”

The five-time Players’ Championship winner Jones had a rock frozen on top of Homan’s shot rock in seven and used her last to bump it out to take two and a 7-6 lead. Down by a point coming home with the hammer, Homan sat first and second shot after throwing her first skip stone and didn’t need to throw her last as Jones wrecked on a guard.

“Jones played really well,” Homan said. “They came out firing and we had a couple misses here and there and they had some really well-deserved twos and threes and we had to battle back really hard in that game.”

Team Homan has won seven titles on tour this year. The club was also a finalist at the Tour Challenge to open the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season and ran the table at the Masters and National.

“I think that’s win No. 53 for us of the season, which is amazing, and we just have to keep going,” Homan said. “We’re resting right now though.” 

Homan now tops the Rogers Grand Slam Cup overall standings at 45 points with a commanding 23-point lead over Tracy Fleury, of Sudbury, Ont., and Edmonton’s Val Sweeting.

The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season resumes with the Elite 10 men’s invitational, March 17-20, 2016, in Victoria, B.C. Both men’s and women’s fields return to Toronto for the Players’ Championship, April 12-17, 2016, where the Rogers Grand Slam Cup champions will be crowned.