OTTAWA — Rachel Homan is heading to the Roar of the Rings women’s final in her hometown after taking Saturday’s semifinal set 6-3 over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones at Canadian Tire Centre.
Homan’s Olympic dream continues as she’ll take on Calgary’s Chelsea Carey in Sunday’s championship game to determine the Canadian women’s team for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to finally be in the final,” Homan said. “That’s exactly where we wanted to be. We had to play today against an unbelievable team and they threw everything at us and had a solid game. We feel really ready to come out tomorrow and bring our A-game.”
Here’s how the women’s semifinal went down:
1ST END: Homan opened with the all-important hammer and that worked out just fine for her in their round-robin matchup. It was house cleaning to start with a fairly routine blank on the board. HOMAN 0, JONES 0
2ND END: Use the force, Jones. After an ice-cold freeze by Jones, Homan had to draw to the button for just a single. Did she make it? Of course. HOMAN 1, JONES 0
3RD END: Em-ma Mis-kew (clap, clap, clap-clap, clap). Another double takeout from Team Homan’s third followed by a hit and roll on her second (plus a heavy roll by Team Jones third Kaitlyn Lawes) set the table for another force situation … or worse.
Jones wrecked on a guard with her first skip stone as her shooter sailed through the house and only hit her own stone outside on the back porch. Homan drew to sit FOUR counters, Jones looked to make a double takeout but kicked out just one and gave up a steal. HOMAN 2, JONES 0
4TH END: That was too close. Sweepers Dawn McEwen and Jill Officer saved it for Jones as it looked like she was going to hit and roll out on her first skip stone but they held the line and Jones’s rock managed to stick around after connecting and bite the 12-foot circle. That split up the rings with Jones sitting stones on opposite sides of the house and nose hits back and forth on their last ones led to a deuce and we’re all square. HOMAN 2, JONES 2
5TH END: Split ’em up! Homan sat stones across the house again leading to nose hits as Homan tallied two points heading into halftime. HOMAN 4, JONES 2
6TH END: A misfire from Lawes on a raise that then took out the team’s own stone prevented Jones from converting with the hammer and led to more bagels on the board. HOMAN 4, JONES 2
7TH END: Jones got caught in a jam. Looking to make a double for a deuce, Jones jammed it to give up a steal for the second time in the game. HOMAN 5, JONES 2
8TH END: You can’t cool the red-hot Team Homan. Miskew and Homan made back-to-back peels on counters that looked to be frozen but were unlocked with ease. Homan went for it again on her last but decluttered the house in the process removing her two other stones as well as her shooter. With an empty house, it was a fly-by for Jones on her last to fire another blank. HOMAN 5, JONES 2
9TH END: The force is strong in this one (as are our Star Wars references). Jones is forced to draw for just one point will looking at a bunch as Homan wrestles the hammer coming home and up by two. HOMAN 5, JONES 3
10TH END: Good to the last shot. Homan hits it on the nose to tack another point on the board and reach the final. HOMAN 6, JONES 3
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NOTES: Homan defeated Jones 9-4 Friday night to wrap up round-robin play. The reigning world champion Homan has now won eight straight since dropping her opening match to Carey 8-4. … Jones, who won the previous trials and captured the 2014 Olympic gold medal, won her first five games of the tournament — extending her season winning streak to 19 — but lost four in a row to conclude her run. … Carey ran the round-robin table with an unblemished 8-0 record to earn the bye to the final. … Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., goes up against Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen in the men’s semifinal at 7 p.m. ET. The winner advances to face Calgary’s Kevin Koe for the opportunity to play for Canada at the Winter Olympics.