Homan and Team Ontario advance to Scotties semifinal

SYDNEY, N.S. – Rachel Homan and Team Ontario’s pursuit of a fourth Scotties Tournament of Hearts championship moved one step closer Saturday with a 6-4 win in the Page playoff 3-4 game. Team Ontario scored two in the first end, forced Krista McCarville and Team Northern Ontario into a single in the second and rode that one-point lead through eight more ends to advance to Sunday’s semifinal. Homan, third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney, lead Lisa Weagle, alternate Cheryl Kreviazuk and coach Marcel Rocque will play the loser of the Page playoff 1-2 game between Chelsea Carey of Alberta and Robyn Silvernagle of Saskatchewan. That game begins at 7:30 p.m. AT today. “I just wanted to manage the scoreboard,” Homan said of keeping things clean as much as possible and not giving McCarville much chance to get a deuce back. “I mean if we were down one there were going to be rocks in the play, we had a bit of lead and wanted to get control. “We know our stats and we know what works for us so we’re managing it to give ourselves the best chance of winning.” Ontario got its two in the first end when Northern Ontario third Kendra Lilly flashed a hit attempt and that allowed Homan to set the house. McCarville made a tough double with her final stone to reduce the damage to just two. McCarville said in practice they found the ice was a little straighter “so I iced the girls normal and it just happened that it was curling a bit more and we struggled with that in the first end.” The teams traded singles through the sixth end, blanked the seventh and then traded singles the final three ends. McCarville, Lilly, second Jen Gates, lead Sarah Potts, alternate Lorraine Lang and coach Rick Lang couldn’t find a way to get the deuce back despite their best efforts. “It just seemed like we couldn’t get anything going when we had the hammer,” said McCarville. “We wanted to create a little more aggressive style of play to make them shoot more difficult shots and we didn’t seem to do that too well today. We just didn’t really have any opportunities to get a deuce going today.” While it was a disappointing end to their Scotties, McCarville and her teammates got some satisfaction in that three of them were named to the second all-star team – McCarville, Lilly and Potts. As well, Potts was named the most sportsmanlike player. The 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts continues with the Page Playoff 1-2 game today at 7:30 p.m. AST. Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts are available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard/ TSN and RDS2 (streamed on ESPN3 in the United States) will provide complete coverage of the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule. For ticket information for the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, go to www.curling.ca/2019scotties/tickets/ This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2019scotties/category/nouvelles/?lang=fr