Big ends earn Canada a ticket to semifinals at 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship

UIJEONGBU, SOUTH KOREA — Big-time players thrive in big-time moments — and Canada rose to the occasion at the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship.

Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan earned a 10-4 win against Scotland’s Team Sophie Jackson in the qualifying round on Saturday morning at Uijeongbu Arena. 

In the second end, sixth-ranked Scotland was sitting two after throwing its final stone, leaving third-ranked Canada with a choice. The safe play was a straightforward hit for a single. The high-risk, high-reward option? A runback thin double for four. Missing could mean giving up a deuce, but making it would deliver a commanding early lead and potentially deflate a Scottish side that had already beaten Canada earlier in the week.

Skip Rachel Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachelle Brown, and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renée Sonnenberg opted for the aggressive shot — and it paid off in spades. Team Homan executed it perfectly.

“We were in the early ends, and we had an opportunity there. I thought it was there for three, and in one spot it was there for four. It was well-called, well-swept and a big shot. Huge for momentum and we just kept our lead the whole game,” Homan said.

Boosting the team’s confidence was the fact that Canada had just thrown a hit down the same path one shot earlier. While that attempt wasn’t executed perfectly, it set the stage for the early-game big end.

“My first one, we thought it would track a little more than it did. I learned from it and just made the adjustment to really nail it on the second one. It was probably the wrong call, but we liked it,” Homan said.

Scotland scored a single in the third end before Canada delivered another highlight-reel run double to post a big score in the fourth. Once again, Scotland was sitting two on Homan’s final shot, but the Canadian skip executed a straightback run double, raising her own stone into the house to remove both Scottish counters and rolling the shooter into the 12-foot for a score of three.

“To be able to blast out helps. They were making really good freezes, really good angles and to be able to throw it a little bit harder and make sure they leave town was definitely big in this game,” Homan said.

Team Homan didn’t rely solely on its big-weight hits. In the fifth end, Homan drew to the side eight-foot to sit two, forcing Scotland into a thin double attempt for a pair. Fourth Rebecca Morrison came close but had to settle for a single as the teams headed into the break.

Canada added a single in the sixth and stole another two in the seventh when Scotland missed a thin double attempt to score multiple points. Scotland conceded in the eighth end after making a draw for one.

Canada now faces the No. 2 seed, South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim, which hails from Uijeongbu, on Saturday at 3 a.m. (all times ET). Team Homan fell to Team Gim 11-7 in round-robin play but now has a chance to put that loss behind in the semifinal — with a spot in the gold-medal game on the line.

“It doesn’t matter who we play next. It’s the playoffs and everyone’s hard. We just need to play out game and keep playing the way we’re playing,” Homan said.

It is the second year in a row the teams will meet in the semifinal. Team Homan won in 2024 en route to winning the world championship.

In the second qualification game, fifth-ranked Team Rui Wang of China upset fourth-ranked Team Anna Hasselborg of Sweden with an 8-7 win. China scored three on a long angle-run takeout to earn the win.

China faces top-ranked Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland in the other semifinal game.

The winners of the semifinals 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.