TORONTO – Yves Moorhead and her Scottish team secured a place in the quarterfinals of the Princess Auto Players’ Women’s Championship on Friday afternoon with a 9-2 victory over Rachel Homann at the Mattamy Athletic Center.
The Beijing Olympics gold medalists advanced to the B-side of the preliminary stage of the triple knockout with a 3-1 record after losing 6-3 on Thursday night to three-time reigning world champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.
“Really good day and really strong performance after our night of loss,” said Third from team Moorhead Vicki Wright. “We regrouped and came out with a shooting, a really clinical performance and we came out with a victory.”
The theft was key to the ruling Olympic gold medalists, as they stole two points in the second end when Homan’s shooter slipped deep into her final and three in the fifth when Ottawa’s pass was small in a draw. Homann shook hands early after Muirhead pirated another pair of points in the sixth.
“We haven’t played since the Olympics, so it was nice to get back on the ice and have a really strong team performance,” Wright said. “We’re just having fun this week and making the most of it.”
Moorhead has won the Players’ Championship three times in Toronto: 2013, 2015 and 2016.
“There are a lot of great memories in this building,” Muerhead said at the start of the tournament. “It’s always nice to go back to Toronto and play in front of the fans makes it even better.”
Wright repeated this last part while playing the Winter Olympics in an almost empty arena.
“It was fun,” Wright said. “This is our last week as a team before the end of the season, so we want to come back here and really enjoy the crowds.”
Both of Homan’s points came in the third at a fine shot that hit her own stone, and her scorer bounced off Team Muirhead’s cliff to stay for the pair.
Homan, who qualified for the C qualifiers in the preliminary stage of the triple knockout, won a record 11 Pinty Grand Slam titles for women and is the title of the players’ championship, far from becoming the first scam in the women’s Grand Slam to finish his career.
Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa advanced to the quarterfinals with a 9-2 victory and beat Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay, Ont. Already with one, Olympic silver medalist Fujisawa drew to score four in the fifth and stole two in the sixth.
The team of Kerry Einarson from Gimli, Manchester, also competed in the playoffs through the B brackets with a 10-2 victory over the German team Daniela Jench.
Homan will face Mackenzie Zacharias of Altona, Manchester, and Jench will face Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg in Friday night’s C qualifiers, while McCarville will face Sweden’s Isabella Vrana.
Wrana scored a 9-5 victory over Regina Chelsea Kerry’s team in the C-semifinals to stay in the mix.
The triple knockout consists of three groups: A, B and C. Teams must win three matches to qualify for the playoffs. Each loss is relegated to a lower group until they lose three games and exit the tournament. Two teams A (3-0 records), three teams B (3-1 records) and three teams C (3-2 records) qualify for the quarterfinals.
Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni and East St. Paul, Man .’s Tracy Florey finished in the women’s division A on Thursday night, while Scotland’s Bruce Muat and Sweden’s Niklas Edin lost 3-0 in the men’s division.
NEXT
The Princess Auto Players’ Championship continues with Draw 15 at 16:00 ET / 13:00 PT in Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (International). The game presented is Team Brad Gushue from St. John’s, NL, against Calgary’s Kevin Koe in the B-qualifier battle.
NOTES
The Princess Auto Players Championship is the third event of Pinty’s season at the 2021-22 Curling Grand Slam, featuring 16 of the best men’s teams and 16 of the best women’s teams from around the world with a combined prize bag of $ 350,000. Winning teams win $ 35,000. … The Pinty’s Cup will also be awarded to the champions of the season after the Princess Auto Players Championship. Pinty’s Cup winners receive $ 50,000 in bonuses.… The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, with both finals scheduled for Sunday.
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