Homan advances in Players curling,

Advances at Players championship

TORONTO Four rinks including reigning Scotties’ champion Rachel Homan of Ottawa and world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland have qualified for playoff spots in the women’s division at the Players curling championship in Toronto.

Homan, who defeated Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones to win her first national women’s championship in Kingston, lost her final round-robin match 6-5 to Chelsea Carey of Winnipeg on Friday, but earned one of the eight quarter-final berths by virtue of a 3-1 record atop Section B.

Muirhead, who won the world championship in Latvia, defeated Anna Sidorova of Moscow 8-6 in an extraend on Friday to finish 2-2 and earn a spot out of Section C.

Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon was the only rink to finish the round-robin at 4-0 atop Section C after beating Shannon Kleibrink of Calgary 6-3 on Friday. The other rink earning a playoff spot was Margaretha Sigfridsson’s rink out of Sweden with a 3-1 record in Section A. She lost her final round-robin match 8-5 to Silvanna Tirinzoni of Switzerland.

Eight other rinks including former national champions Jones and Heather Nedohin of Edmonton are trying to qualify for the final four playoff spots via tiebreakers, Jones, who lost 7-5 to Laura Crocker of Edmonton in her final round-robin match to finish 2-2 in Section A, was playing Michele Jaeggi of Switzerland in one of two tiebreakers in Friday’s late draw. Jaeggi, a 4-2 loser to Sidorova in her final round-robin match, also finished 2-2 in Section C.

The other tiebreaker being played Friday night involved Renee Sonnenberg of Alberta against Tirinzoni. Sonnenberg finished 2-2 in Section B after beating Carey 6-3 in their final round-robin match. Tirinzoni finished 2-2 in Section A.

Nedohin defeated Mirjam Ott of Switzerland 9-7 in an extra-end to finish 2-2 in Section B and earn a spot in one of two tiebreakers on Saturday against Sidorova, who was 2-2 in Section C. The other tiebreaker Saturday features Crocker, 2-2 in Section A, playing Carey, who finished 2-2 in Section B.

The four quarter-final matches are scheduled Saturday with the winners advancing to semifinal action on Saturday night. The final goes on Sunday.

In the 15-rink men’s portion of the competition, which is the final event of the season on the World Curling Tour calendar, last night’s final draw in the round-robin featured a showdown between a couple of undefeated teams at 3-0 in Section C.

Glenn Howard’s rink out of Ontario was taking on Mike McEwen of Manitoba with both teams already qualifying for playoffs.