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CAMROSE, Alta. — From triple knockout to single elimination, the stage is now set for the women’s quarterfinals at the Meridian Canadian Open.

Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland secured her playoff spot ousting Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 5-4 Friday afternoon in the C-finals.

While Tirinzoni (3-2) had to take the long road and will play B-qualifier Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg in the quarterfinals, it’s not how you qualify for the playoffs only that you do indeed qualify.

“Eleven out of 16 team make it to the C so it’s not a big deal in the Grand Slam to go through C,” Tirinzoni said. “I didn’t think too much about that. Of course, Hasselborg was one of the strongest teams to have in the C final but it was great. It was an excellent game, I think.”

It was a tough back-and-forth battle between two of the top teams on the World Curling Tour. Tirinzoni, ranked No. 4, settled for a single in the second and stole one in the third when Hasselborg stuffed a raise double takeout attempt.

Hasselborg, No. 2 in the world, mirrored those scores to tie it drawing for one in the fourth and grabbing another point in the fifth with Tirinzoni facing a cluttered house and opting to throw her last away.

Tirinzoni bounced back in six with a draw for two points but missed a runback in seven to allow Hasselborg to draw and count a couple to make it all-square at 4-4.

Hasselborg froze on the button with her last rock in eight and Tirinzoni, who held the all-important hammer, made a precision hit to unlock it and keep her shooter around for the winning point.

There will certainly be a lot more at stake the next time these two teams face off when they clash at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

“It’s very nice to have this win but the Olympics are going to be a totally different story,” Tirinzoni said. “But of course if we can perform the way we performed today we have very good chances to beat her there again.”

Team Tirinzoni switched their throwing order leading up to the Olympics with vice skip Manuela Siegrist now tossing second stones and Esther Neuenschwander moving up to third. Siegrist was sidelined for the second half of last season due to a knee injury and was onboard with the decision to mix it up.

“It was kind of hard for Manuela to come back from her knee injury so it took a while to get in shape for her,” Tirinzoni said. “She felt she might be more comfortable at second — it was actually her idea — and with Esther playing very well we were thinking that we might be even stronger that way. It wasn’t a big deal to think about.”

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Meanwhile, Michelle Englot’s Winnipeg team dispatched American Nina Roth 6-4 to advance. Englot will play Allison Flaxey, of Caledon, Ont., who went 3-0 through the A-side.

EunJung Kim of South Korea also qualified by bouncing Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson 6-3. Kim, who will represent the host nation at the Winter Games, now takes on top-seed Rachel Homan (3-0) in another Olympic preview. Homan won the Canadian curling trials in her hometown of Ottawa last month.

Calgary’s Chelsea Carey and Edmonton’s Laura Crocker both qualified through the B event with 3-1 records and collide in a Battle of Alberta.

Action continues at Encana Arena with the men’s C-finals at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet. Also watch online at Sportsnet NOW (Canada) or gsoc.yaretv.com (international).

The women’s quarterfinals take place Saturday at 10 a.m. MT on Sportsnet ONE.

NOTES: Winners of the Meridian Canadian Open earn berths to the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup running April 24-29 at Calgary’s WinSport Arena. … Points are also up for grabs for the Bonus Cup, awarded to the overall season champions.