Another WinSport Win!

Team Homan continues its Calgary brilliance with Sweep 16 PointsBet Invitational victory

Strictly speaking, it’s not home-ice advantage — none of the members of Team Rachel Homan resides in Calgary — but their comfort level at the WinSport Event Centre is obvious.

And it was on display again Wednesday afternoon at Canada Olympic Park’s main arena in the opening round of the 2024 PointsBet Invitational as the top-seeded Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes and rookie coach Brendan Bottcher piled up an 11-2 Sweep 16 win over No. 16 Team Gabrielle Wood of Edmonton.

Next up for Team Homan, the defending champions of the PointsBet Invitational, is an Elite 8 assignment Friday at 1 p.m. (all times Mountain) against No. 8 Team Corryn Brown of Kamloops, B.C.

It’s the eighth event Team Homan has played at the WinSport Event Centre, going back to the 2015 Continental Cup of Curling. Those seven previous events have netted four championships (most recently the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts last February, to go with Grand Slam Champions Cup wins in 2021, 2018 and 2017) as well as being part of Team Canada’s win at the 2015 Continental Cup, and two runner-up finishes (2021 Scotties, 2021 Players’ Championship) and a cumulative record (including Wednesday) in head-to-head four-player games of 49-10.

Suffice it to say, playing at WinSport is a pleasant experience for Homan.

“Absolutely,” she agreed with a smile. “I don’t know … it’s close to home (Homan resides in Beaumont, Alta.) now. I love playing in Calgary and the ice is always great. And I’ve never come back to a national championship arena so quickly; we were out practising on Sheet C and that was our final game (at the Scotties), so I remembered a bunch of shots in the game — lots of good memories. My kids running down the carpet (after the final), the trophy and all our friends and family being here. So it’s crazy to be back so soon. 

Team Homan’s successful debut at the 2024 PointsBet Invitational should hardly come as a surprise considering the team’s majestic 2023-24 season that saw it win the 2023 PointsBet Invitational in Oakville, Ont., two Grand Slam titles, and follow up with a perfect run at the 2024 Scotties and a memorable gold medal at the 2024 BKT Tires World Women’s Curling Championship in Sydney, N.S.

Small surprise the Ottawa-based team was presented with the Key to the City by Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe in June.

Against Team Wood — the reigning Canadian Colleges Athletic Association champions wearing the colours of the Concordia University Thunder — Team Homan jumped out early, taking four in the second end, and then stealing a single in the fourth end and four more in the fifth to essentially put the game out of reach.

“We played well and learned as many lines (in the ice) as we can,” said Homan. “Hopefully it’s a little bit less frosty on Friday, but we have all the confidence in the world — we’ve got the best icemakers here.”

In other Sweep 16 games in the top half of the bracket, Team Brown doubled ninth-seeded Team Serena Gray-Withers (Edmonton) 8-4; No. 4 seeds Team Kaitlyn Lawes (Winnipeg) was a 5-2 winner over 13th-seeded Team Taylor Reese-Hansen (Victoria); and fifth-seeded Team Selena Sturmay (Edmonton) got by No. 12 Team Ashley Thevenot (Saskatoon) 8-7.

The 2024 PointsBet Invitational continues Wednesday with the opening men’s draw, scheduled for 6 p.m. (all times MT).

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2024 PointsBet Invitational are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS will provide coverage of the 2024 PointsBet Invitational. CLICK HERE for the complete schedule.

For ticket information for the 2024 PointsBet Invitational, go to www.curling.ca/2024pointsbetinvitational/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/2024pointsbetinvitational/nouvelles/?lang=fr