YOUTH VS. EXPERIENCE
Veteran Americans claim experience will provide edge over young Homan rink
The Ottawa rink skipped by Rachel Homan faces a veteran U.S. foursome in a playoff game at the world curling championships.
Let the playoff games begin on the ice. The mind games already have.
Skips Erika Brown and Rachel Homan voiced differing opinions about the value of world curling championship experience after the matchup between their United States and Canadian teams in the 3-4 Page playoff game of this year’s event was confirmed Friday.
Brown, 40, gave the 23-yearold Homan and her barely older Ottawa teammates Emma Miskew, Alison Kreviazuk and Lisa Weagle due credit for their successes in cashspiels and playdowns, but hastened to opine that international exposure was crucial: Her team has a combined 20 previous world championship appearances, 12 world juniors and seven Olympics to the Canadians’ zero, three and zero.
“It is always a little bit different,” said Brown, a Wisconsin native who is married to former Canadian and world men’s champion Ian Tetley and has lived since 2004 in Oakville, Ont. “It’s not the stage that they played on at the Scotties (national championship), with all the fans and the people and everything else. “Obviously there’s still a lot riding on it, and for them and for Canada, there’s always a ton of pressure on their shoulders. We know that and I think that helps us. We have all been here many, many times, so we are just going to go with that theory.”
Homan, who finished second in the 2010 world juniors at Flims, Switzerland, with a team that included Miskew as third and Kreviazuk as alternate, said her Ottawa Curling Club foursome heard the same kind of comments before they rolled into nationals at Kingston and rolled out with a Canadian title after 12 victories in 13 games.
“We have only been to two Scotties, and we have been to two worlds now,” she said. “I think we can win, I think we can go all the way. We just have to play like we have been playing and stick together as a team.”
The Canadians lost only three of 11 round-robin games at the Volvo Sports Center, but each was against a remaining playoff counterpart: Scotland and Sweden, who met in Friday’s 1-2 Page playoff match after finishing with matching 10-1 records, and the 6-5 U.S. squad, which downed Switzerland 7-4 in a tiebreaker for the fourth playoff spot.
None of those defeats was one-sided, though. ❚ Despite their lowest combined shooting percentage of the week, 74 per cent, the Ottawa curlers took Eve Muirhead’s Scottish rink to the 10th end before running out of rocks in a 6-4 setback. ❚ Homan’s team curled 85 per cent against the U.S., and Brown had to make her final shot of the extra end for a 5-4 win. ❚ The Canadians’ best percentage was the 89 they threw at the Swedes, but Margaretha Sigfridsson’s crew shot 88 per cent and Maria Prytz’s final stone made all the difference in an 8-4 score.
Brown is one of the few curling skips who can claim to have never lost to a team led by Homan. The only other time they met, during a Winnipeg cashspiel in October 2010, Brown prevailed 6-5.
By virtue of finishing third, Homan and Co. will start Saturday’s playoff game with last-rock advantage.
Miskew also said they were more familiar with the world-championship format: 11 round-robin games and the Page playoffs, exactly what they went through at Kingston.
“Other countries don’t have that. They don’t have that test,” Miskew said.
“They don’t have to win their country by playing that many games.
“So I think that maybe they have the experience at the world level, but I don’t think we have a lack of experience.”
The win by Brown, third Debbie McCormick, second Jessica Schultz and lead Ann Swisshelm against Silvana Tirinzoni’s Swiss team was the second tiebreaker on Friday.
Earlier, Switzerland edged Anna Sidorova’s Russian foursome 7-6 in an extra end.
Those three teams had completed round-robin play at 6-5.
Because of the need for two tiebreakers, the Canadians had a day off from competition on Friday.
According to Homan, highlights included sleeping in for the first time all week and shopping.
They were on the ice for 30 minutes in late afternoon to refine their selections for eight red-and-yellow rocks from the 32 of each used during the championship.
Because Canada opted for last-rock advantage in the first end Saturday, the U.S. has first choice of colour.
Homan winced before making her last two throws and appeared to be trying to stretch her left leg.
However, the young athlete, who works as a fitness trainer when she isn’t reigning over Canadian curling, said it was only because she skipped her normal pregame warm-up.
“It was just a half-hour practice, and I was only throwing four rocks,” she said. “Just a little tight.”