One thing is clear just a couple weeks before the Canadian Trials to determine who will represent the country at the 2026 Olympics — the top teams will be very hard to beat.
With the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe event being the last major competition until the Trials later this month in Halifax, it was important for Canadian rinks to find their groove — and Rachel Homan, Brad Jacobs and Matt Dunstone certainly have.
All three finished preliminary-round play Friday with a win to improve to 4-0 and will now need to go undefeated to win the Grand Slam of Curling event.
Friday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 13
Hoesli 6, Retornaz 4
Ha 8, Kitazawa 6
X. Schwaller 9, Morrison 3
McEwen 11, Edin 5
Draw 14
Tirinzoni 8, Wang 3
Lawes 6, Tabata 5
Jacobs 7, Muskatewitz 6
Waddell 8, Y. Schwaller 7 (SO)
Draw 15
Fujisawa 8, Einarson 7
Epping 9, Kleiter 5
Homan 10, Yoshimura 3
Whyte 9, Xu 5
Draw 16
Gim 9, Kang 3
Dunstone 7, McDonald 4
Wrana 5, Hasselborg 4 (SO)
Mouat 8, Allen 2
Tiebreakers needed
For the third straight GSOC event, there will be tiebreakers to decide the final eight spots on both the men’s and women’s sides.
For the women, Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson will face Korea’s Team Bo-Bae Kang and Japan’s Team Ikue Kitazawa will take on Korea’s Team Eun-ji Gim.
On the men’s side, Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz will go up against Canada’s Team Mike McEwen.
Best match
There might not be a better match this week than the one on Friday with Jacobs versus Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz.
Both teams swapped deuces while making brilliant shots in the first half of the game, setting up an exciting back four.
In the fifth, we got the first ‘mistake’ of the game as Jacobs scored, but only for one. That left the door open for Muskatewitz to take advantage in a game the German needed to make the playoffs.
Muskatewitz got his deuce in six, enhancing his chances to win.
The seventh end was more of the same with Muskatewitz’s team outplaying Jacobs’ rink by a hair to have the advantage while Jacobs threw his final stone. Although Jacobs made a difficult shot, he couldn’t keep his shooter for second shot, tying the game.
But in the eighth end with a slim chance of winning, Jacobs and his team found their game from the first half and delivered.
No shot was better than Jacobs' last rock. With one already biting the four-foot, he elected to place his last rock in the top-12-foot to block an easy draw path for Muskatewitz.
Jacobs came through, putting the pressure on Muskatewitz to make a draw to the four-foot.
Unfortunately he did the worst thing possible, and took the rock out of the sweepers' hands by throwing it heavy, giving Jacobs the thrilling win.
Best shot
Don’t look now, but Scotland might be the best overall country for curling on the men’s side.
Usually it’s world No. 1 Bruce Mouat or world No. 5 Ross Whyte making a crazy shot, but this time it was world No. 13 Kyle Waddell who stole the show.
Waddell trailed 6-3 in the sixth end and knew he needed to make something monumental happen to get back into the game.
He achieved that with his last stone as he delivered a runback where he would move five rocks in total, four of which belonged to Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller. The shot scored three points and tied the game.
Best sweep
There is nothing like a length-of-the-ice sweep in the early morning to get the juices following.
Justin Hausherr, a part of Switzerland’s Team Marco Hoesli, got that experience on Friday morning during the fourth end.
To get a single point, Hoesli needed to make a hit while just snugging past the guard out front. However, without Hausherr sweeping, Hoesli might have nosed the guard because the team wasn’t expecting the amount of curl they saw with the amount of weight they threw.
Hausherr got the job done and held the rock straight for an impressive single point.
Biggest momentum swing
It wasn’t a pretty site for Einarson in the fourth end versus Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa. Already trailing 3-2 without hammer, Fujisawa was sitting four as Einarson slid down the ice to throw her final stone.
The Canadian needed to hit and roll behind two of her own guards, but if she rolled an inch too far, Fujisawa had a chance for four.
Basically she needed to be perfect.
With the game on the line, she delivered a magnificent shot, rolling into the perfect place and leaving Fujisawa with a draw for two. It was a massive win for Einarson.
Even though Fujisawa was the one hanging points on the board, you could tell the momentum had switched, and it showed the next end.
Val Sweeting, Einarson’s third, made a beautiful shot by threading the needle with her first stone, leading to a three-point end for Einarson to tie the game.
Despite losing the game 8-7, Einarson’s shot in the fourth end gave her team the momentum to fight until the end.
Top team
Don’t make Homan and her squad mad or else they will make you pay.
Japan’s Team Sayaka Yoshimura learned that lesson on Friday. Even though Yoshimura jumped out to an early 3-0 in the first end — something we never see Homan give up — it was the only points they scored as Homan and her team went to another level.
Homan immediately answered right back by scoring four in the second end.
But that was only the beginning, as it felt like all four members of Homan’s team didn’t miss, leading to a steal of two in the third end, a steal of one in the fourth and yet another steal in the fifth end for three more points.
Yoshimura rightfully had seen enough and shook the hand of Homan to end a 10-3 demolition.
Saturday's schedule
KIOTI GSOC Tahoe tiebreaker coverage starts at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT on Sportsnet+ while quarterfinals coverage will begin on Sportsnet at 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT.
Featured matches
Women’s quarterfinals: 2:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. PT
Men’s quarterfinals: 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT
Men’s and Women’s semifinals: 10:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. PT
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