CRANBROOK, B.C. — Michelle Englot and her Winnipeg-based team are through to the semifinals at the Tour Challenge after stunning Ottawa’s Rachel Homan 7-5 on Saturday in the quarters.
Englot, the seventh seed in the quarterfinal bracket, took a one-point lead with a three-ender in the second and kept pace as the teams exchanged singles in three and five and deuces in six and seven.
The five-time Grand Slam champion Homan held the hammer coming home in the eighth with a tricky shot to score two for the win, however, her double raise just missed the counter stone and Englot held on for the upset win.
Team Homan entered the match with an unblemished 4-0 record while Team Englot went 2-2 through round-robin play and secured a playoff spot by defeating Scotties Tournament of Hearts winners Team Chelsea Carey of Calgary in Friday night’s tiebreaker.
Englot will play Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg of Sweden, who topped Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones 7-5 to advance. Hasselborg sat three prior to her last coming home in eight with the score knotted up at fives and did not need to throw her last as Jones made a desperate throw with six seconds left on the clock that sailed through the uprights.
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On the other side of the bracket, recent Masters winner and top-seed Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., extended her Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series winning streak to 10 games with a 5-3 victory over Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque.
After giving up a steal in the fifth to trail by one, Flaxey bounced back big time in the sixth making a triple on her first skip stone then had an opportunity to draw for three with her last after Rocque’s stone rolled through the rings.
Rocque gave up a steal in the seventh and ran out of options in eight.
The two-time world junior winner Rocque was playing in her second straight game of the day after earning a 7-1 rout over defending champ Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland during the morning tiebreaker.
Flaxey will face Edmonton’s Val Sweeting, who stole a spot in the semis by edging Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont., 7-5. Fleury held the hammer coming home all knotted up 5-5, but crashed on a guard with her last.
The men’s quarterfinals get underway at 4 p.m. MT on Sportsnet ONE & SN NOW with both men’s and women’s semifinals at 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet & SN NOW.
NOTES: The Tour Challenge is the second of seven events on the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule. … All Tier 1 games will be played at Western Financial Place. Tier 2 division games are now underway at Memorial Arena. … The Tour Challenge runs through to Sunday at Western Financial Place (all Tier 1 games and Tier 2 finals) and Memorial Arena (Tier 2 games from round-robin play to semifinals).
