Team Homan earns win, but semifinal bye remains uncertain at 2025 LGT World Women’s Championship

UIJEONGBU, SOUTH KOREA —  Team Rachel Homan notched another victory at the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship on Friday afternoon, strengthening its playoff position — but outside factors will still determine if the team has a direct ticket to the semifinals.

Ottawa’s Team Homan continued to deliver results within its control, earning a 9-2 win over Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini (4-8) at Uijeongbu Arena. The victory moved Canada to 9-2, tied with South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim for second place in the standings.

The top six teams advance to the playoffs, but only the top two receive byes directly to the semifinals. The other four teams face off in a qualification round. Despite sharing second place, Canada currently sits third overall due to its head-to-head loss to South Korea.

Team Homan must win its final two round-robin games on Friday to remain in contention for a top-two finish. Skip Rachel Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachelle Brown, and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renée Sonnenberg completed the first half of that task against Italy.

After a blanked first end, the Canadians jumped ahead in the second. Homan’s first draw attempt to sit one was swept vigorously by Wilkes, narrowly curling past a centre guard and another stone to settle in the top 12-foot, well-guarded. Italy’s draw was heavy, setting up a tap at the back of the house for three points and an early lead for Canada.

“The tapback was a huge shot. It was so well thrown, so well called and to just tap it that little extra inch was huge. It was a great start to the game,” Wilkes said.

Italy responded with a single in the third end and applied pressure in the fourth, threatening to force or steal. However, Homan delivered a skip’s deuce, executing a dead-on raise to the four-foot to lie one, then drawing for a second point along a fresh path on the sheet.

In the fifth, Italy was limited to one. Attempting to freeze and steal in the sixth, the Italians left a counter open. Homan removed it with a bullet-weight takeout, scoring two more and extending Canada’s lead.

Italy conceded in the seventh end after needing to make an angle double takeout to score multiple points. The shot jammed, and Canada earned a steal of two.

As a unit, the Canadians curled an outstanding 93 per cent, with Homan standing out as the highlight with a perfect 100 per cent game. 

Canada has the highest shooting percentage among all teams this week at 88.6 per cent and all four Canadians are in the top two among their positions.

“It’s such a long week. It’s easy to be fatigued and fall into complacency. To keep dialling it up as the week goes on heading into those big, really important games is important because everyone else is too,” Wilkes said.

All six playoff teams have been confirmed, with final seeding to be decided in the last round-robin draw at 6 a.m. (all times ET) Friday.

Scotland’s Team Sophie Jackson (7-5) clinched a playoff spot earlier in the day. China’s Team Rui Wang (7-4) then defeated Scotland 7-2 to secure the final berth during the most recent draw.

Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni (10-1), South Korea’s Team Gim and Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg (8-3) all qualified for the playoffs on Thursday.

Canada wraps up round-robin play later today against China. A victory and a loss from either South Korea or Switzerland’s Team Tirinzoni are necessary for a semifinal bye. 

“Being where we are, we have to accept that. Unfortunately, it’s not in our hands, and all we can do is go out there and play our best and learn from our next game. Whatever game we end up in in the playoffs is what it is. It’s kind of out of our control, which isn’t a great feeling, but we let go of that, accept that, and move forward,” Wilkes said.

In other Draw 19 action, Turkey’s Team Dilsat Yildiz (3-9) defeated Lithuania’s Team Virginija Paulauskaite (0-11) and Japan’s Team Sayaka Yoshimura (4-7) defeated Norway’s Team Marianne Roervik (5-7) with a 6-3 win.

The playoffs commence with the qualification games on Friday at 9 p.m. and the semifinals at 3 a.m. on Saturday. The winners advance to the 3 a.m. gold-medal game on Sunday, while the losers play earlier in the day for the bronze on Saturday at 9 p.m.

For Team Canada updates, go to www.curling.ca. Follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

For live scoring, standings, and statistics, click here.

TSN, Curling Canada’s Season of Champions broadcast partner, will provide live coverage of all Canadian round-robin games and playoff games. Click here for the full broadcast schedule.

Non-Canadian round-robin games are available through World Curling’s streaming platform, The Curling Channel.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible here.