TORONTO — Edmonton’s Val Sweeting powered past Ottawa’s Rachel Homan with a 9-2 victory in just five ends in Players’ Championship Draw 8 action Thursday at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Already ahead 2-1, Sweeting broke open the game wide with a neat angle raise takeout to score four in the third end to take a commanding five-point lead. Homan was held to one in the fourth and shook hands after Sweeting added three more in the fifth.
Team Sweeting, who won the Masters title in November, dropped their opening draw match and won back-to-back games in the extra end but now look to maintain the momentum off of the big win at the season-ending Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling tournament.
“We kind of struggled in our games before,” Sweeting said. “We were just getting comfortable not being as precise as we usually are so we wanted to come out and really catch onto the ice and get a good feel and keep out rocks in good spots. I think we were happy to get out of those other two games with Ws because we were kind of sluggish but able to get a big end in the seventh and we’d be okay.
“We definitely want to keep building on that game because we played really well and just go from there.”
Homan (3-1) struggled early in the opening end and missed on her first skip stone. Sweeting capitalized to set up the deuce and scored the two with a hit and stick on her final throw. Homan grabbed a piece of the four-foot paint with her final shot in the second for a single but Sweeting rolled away with her four-score in the third.
“On my first we thought about playing that but we wanted to save it for my last one because it’s just such a nice curl there that we were able to get her’s out on my first one and to leave that shot on the next one,” Sweeting said. “We feel a lot better about that game as a whole. I know the scoreboard was a little lopsided but I think we felt better about that game regardless of what the score was. We were just happy to figure out the ice and everything like that and have a good game.”
Players’ Championship: Men’s Scores | Women’s Scores | Standings
Elsewhere, a close call measurement in the eighth end gave Winnipeg’s Kristy McDonald (2-2) the single steal to win 5-4 over Margaretha Sigfridsson (0-4) of Sweden.
Sherry Middaugh (3-1) made no mistake with the out-turn draw to the button to score three in the final frame and lift her Coldwater, Ont., team to a 7-6 over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni (1-3).
Reigning world champion Alina Paetz from Switzerland is still undefeated after moving up to 3-0 with a single in the extra end for a 6-5 victory over Russia’s Anna Sidorova (1-2).
Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones (1-2) caught a lucky break in the extra end to get the steal and win 6-5 over Binia Feltscher (1-2) of Switzerland. Feltscher had a chance for an open draw to the button to get the victory but rolled heavy.
