Team Homan gets Canada off on right foot at 2024 Pan Continental Championships

LACOMBE, Alta. — Team Rachel Homan picked up right where it left off the last time it donned the Maple Leaf in international curling competition.

The Ottawa team — Homan is backed up by vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachel Brown and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renee Sonnenberg — romped to a 9-2 win over Team Cory Thiesse of the United States Sunday afternoon at the Gary Moe Auto Group Sportsplex to open women’s competition at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships.

It was the first time Team Homan, ranked first in the world, has represented Canada since winning gold at the 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship seven months ago in Sydney, N.S.

They didn’t miss a beat in Lacombe on Sunday afternoon against the 13th-ranked U.S. team that was without regular skip Tabitha Peterson, who is giving birth soon.

It was an early test that Team Homan was clearly ready for.

“Absolutely; they’re a great team and they’ve had a lot of success this year and in the past,” said Homan. “Cory’s a great mixed doubles player as well; she’s got a lot of events under her belt this year. So, great to have a start like that. Definitely some tricky conditions, and the guys (Team Brad Gushue, who played in the morning draw) gave us a heads-up on that. It’s not easy out there in a first game, so I’m glad we could come out with the win.”

The Canadians were in full command from the opening end; they took advantage of two missed takeouts from the U.S. to score three.

An end later, the U.S. appeared to be building a three of its own, only to have it snuffed out by a remarkable triple-takeout from Homan.

And it got worse in the third when Thiesse’s hit attempt was wide, leaving Canada steal of three and allowing Team Homan to put it in cruise control.

“You can kind of take a learning mindset (when you take an early lead),” said Homan. “I mean, we always try to do that, but even more so, when you get that lead, you can try some different shots and learn some different lines, so it was helpful, for sure.”

“I mean, coming up against a good opponent like that when you’re still learning the ice and rocks, we knew we had to come out and give it all we’ve got, learn from every shot and catch onto the ice quickly because if we don’t, they probably are,” added Wilkes. “It makes you have to make an lot of shots early, so you maybe sharpen up a little bit faster; it brings the intensity up right away.”

The U.S. followed with single points in the fourth and fifth ends, but Canada put the win away with another count of three in the sixth, prompting the concession from Team U.S.A.

As the skip of the reigning world champs, Homan is aware that her team will enter every game with a target on its collective back.

“I think we know that we’re going to get everyone’s best game, and that’s what you want,” she said. “You want to get good games and get as much experience as you can when you’re on the ice together. It’s great to just keep playing in these arena conditions, playing good teams and getting everyone’s best. And just keep learning as much as we can together.”

In other women’s Draw 1 games, Mexico’s Team Adriana Camarena scored two in the 10th end to defeat Chinese Taipei’s Team Ko Yang 9-8; South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim beat China’s Team Rui Wang 5-2; and Japan’s Team Miyu Ueno was a 7-4 winner over New Zealand’s Team Chelsea Suddens.

Team Homan returns to action for a pair of games on Monday: at 9 a.m. (all times Mountain) against Chinese Taipei (0-1) and at 7 p.m. against China (0-1).

Team Brad Gushue (1-0), meanwhile, is back on the ice later Sunday, at 7:30 p.m. against Chinese Taipei’s Team Ken Hsu (0-1).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.

All games are being streamed live on The Curling Channel. CLICK HERE for details.

Ticket information for the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships is available by CLICKING HERE.

This story will be posted in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/category-all-posts-fr/?lang=fr