News National

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — The three was on Casey Scheidegger’s side during the BOOST National women’s quarterfinals.

The Lethbridge, Alta., skip has joked in the past that she typically gives up trios and has to fight back, but that wasn’t the case Saturday against Ottawa’s Rachel Homan.

Scheidegger took a trey in the fifth end, which proved to be the difference-maker for a 7-4 victory to oust the six-time Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title winner.

Although Homan holds a 6-4 head-to-head record between the two, Scheidegger has her number in the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling with a 4-1 advantage and perhaps it’s a result of the five-rock rule used in the series.

“I love this five-rock rule so I can’t wait until it’s always five-rock rule,” Scheidegger said. “It’s going really well.”

Watch the BOOST National semifinals on Sportsnet ONE at 9 p.m. ET

Scheidegger, last season’s Meridian Canadian Open champion, started with the hammer but was forced to make a draw to the button for a single in the first with two counters in the house. Homan also faced a couple in the second with no chance for a double to blank and made a nose hit to tie it 1-1.

The teams alternated pairs of points in three and four as misplays led to misfortune.

Homan grazed the shot counter in the third but needed to push it just another inch farther and Scheidegger drew to bite the back of the button for her second point. A couple misfires from Scheidegger in the fourth opened an opportunity for Homan to score three, but her last didn’t curl enough to get into the pile and she only took two tying it 3-3.

Scheidegger regained the momentum in five executing a perfect double takeout to score her aforementioned three points and grab a 6-3 lead in the set.

The pressure valve was on in six as Scheidegger forced Homan to hit and stick around for just another single. Scheidegger matched in seven with another sharp draw to land on the lid and retake the three-point hold.

“We knew the draw weight really well so that’s obviously a big advantage,” Scheidegger said. “Not that they didn’t, they threw a lot of good draws too. It’s kind of tricky but we got the hold of it so it’s good.”

Homan held the hammer coming home in eight and couldn’t come back as Scheidegger made a tricky shot on her last to clip out the back stone and run her opponent out of rocks.

“That was a little tight but I just saw that one better from the hack and I felt like we knew the spot as well as the other one,” Scheidegger said. “The way that I threw my first one I was a little nervous to have to skinny by our yellow one and really give her an easy shot for the three. Just saw it better, called it and made it so that’s all we can ask for.”

Scheidegger will now face Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., who kept her winning streak rolling and advanced with a 9-3 thumping over two-time world champion Binia Feltscher of Switzerland.

“They’re a hot team too so we’re going to have to bring our A game because they’re obviously reading the ice well and playing really well,” Scheidegger said. “We’ll just come out guns blazing and see what happens. Hopefully get some more threes on our side so it’s good.”

Fleury, who went on a 4-0 run in round-robin play to take the No. 1 seed, broke a 2-2 tie thanks to thievery stealing three in the fourth and swiping four more in the fifth to build an insurmountable lead. Feltscher managed just a single in six and shook hands.

The other side of the bracket sees reigning Olympic gold medallist Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg clash with Calgary’s Chelsea Carey.

Jones, who swept through last month’s Masters tournament, extended her series winning streak to 12 games scoring three in the seventh to lift her team to a 7-4 victory over 2015 world champion Alina Paetz of Switzerland.

Carey cooled Edmonton’s Val Sweeting 5-3. Sweeting went 4-0 through the round-robin portion including an 8-0 shutout rout over Carey.

The BOOST National is the third tournament and second major of the 2017-18 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series.

The men’s quarterfinals are up next (Sportsnet ONE, 5 p.m. ET) with Winnipeg’s Jason Gunnlaugson against Toronto’s John Epping, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., going up against Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen, Calgary’s Kevin Koe clashes with Scotland’s Bruce Mouat and Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers collides with Chang-Min Kim of South Korea.