Homan rink provincial champs
Ottawa Curling Club foursome headed to national showdown
WATERLOO, Ont. • Rachel Homan and her Ottawa Curling Club team are going back to the Canadian women’s curling championships following a 7-3 win Sunday evening to reclaim the Ontario Scotties title.
Homan — teamed with Emma Miskew, Alison Kreviazuk, and Lisa Weagle — defeated Cathy Auld and her foursome from the Mississauga Golf and Country Club in the championship game at the K-W Granite Club in Waterloo. “It’s amazing to be able to get back (to the national championships),” Homan said after the victory. “I am so proud of my team. We are just so excited right now, it’s hard to ... we just have to let it sink in a little bit.”
“We have been building all week and preparing for the weekend,” Homan added. “We’ve been in a lot of finals and we had to try to get ready to get there (again). Once we were there, it was just preparing for the final and just doing what we know we need to do to make it happen.”
For the second straight year, the Homan squad steamrollered its Ontario counterparts with an undefeated record in round robin play — outscoring the opposition 64-27 in the process. This time, the team completed the process by winning back the provincial crown. In 2011, Homan’s group took the title in its first year out of juniors, and were on the cusp of a repeat last year before losing the final.
“We are going to try and represent Ontario as best we can,” the skip said. “We are really excited, we have a lot of fans that want to come and watch us in Kingston. A lot of people already bought tickets hoping we would get there.”
“We can’t wait,” Homan said about the upcoming trip to Kingston, where the Canadian championships will be held Feb. 16-24. “We’re really ready to try and go all the way this year.”
The championship turned in the sixth end, when Homan stole three points following two blank ends by Auld, increasing the lead to 5-1. Auld could only get one back in the seventh before Homan essentially wrapped things up with a deuce in the eighth end.
Auld and her team of Janet Murphy, Stephanie Matheson, and Melissa Foster managed a single in the ninth end before shaking hands.
“They are a great team,” Auld said of the Homan rink. “Hopefully this time when they go to the Scotties, they can bring it home.”
On Saturday, in the 1-2 page playoff game, the Auld rink came up empty in a 9-0 loss to the Homan rink, which sent the Ottawa team directly to the championship contest. Homan also defeated the Auld squad 8-4 Friday on the final day of the round robin. Auld defeated Sherry Middaugh’s Coldwater rink in the semifinal Sunday morning to set up the final with Homan.
This was Homan’s third straight appearance in women’s playdowns, after a hugely successful bantam and junior curling career that was capped in 2010 with a Canadian Junior title and a silver medal at the world championships.