'We're ready' for playoffs: What Canada has to do to defend title at World Women’s Curling Championship
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Rachel Homan and her rink intended on turning negatives into positives when they took to the playoff ice of the 2025 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship.
Why fret anyways when they know they’ve got it in them to make the weekend at hand their own in a bid to defend their title won last winter?
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'We're ready' for playoffs: What Canada has to do to defend title at World Women’s Curling Championship Back to video
Even if it did mean playing an extra game — that one being an elimination contest in the qualification round — the team from Ottawa did not have in its plans in aiming to claim the worlds crown for a second straight season.
“An extra game to get the feel of the ice? That’s fine,” said positive-minded Homan vice-skip Tracy Fleury, of the do-or-die qualification tilt for Canada (11-2) won over Scotland’s Sophie Jackson (7-6) to kick off the playoffs early Saturday in Uijeongbu, South Korea.
With the 10-4 win, Canada moved on to play Korea’s Gim Eun-ji (10-2) in Saturday’s semifinal (3 a.m. ET, TSN) for a spot in the gold-medal game Sunday (3 a.m. ET, TSN).
“We’ve been playing all two-game days lately, so what’s one more?” continued Fleury. “We’re ready.”
Were they ever.
Homan, Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachelle Brown and national coaches Viktor Kjell and Renée Sonnenberg made quick work of Scotland in the elimination game, scoring four in the second end on an electric raised double take-out by the skip and three more in the fourth end on another well-executed raised double take-out by the big-hitting boss. They counted a bonus on the latter, when the shooter stone spun its way just enough to catch the edge of the house.
And from there, it was academic for Canada in the requisite eight ends.
The no-doubter certainly took the sting out of not earning the bye directly through to the semifinal to avoid the qualification round.
Because of a round-robin loss to Korea, the crew repping the Ottawa Curling Club fell short of a top-two finish to earn that advancement.
The standings finished with Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni (11-1) on top followed by Korea and then Canada.
Rounding out the playoff teams were Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg (9-3), China’s Wang Rui (7-5) and Scotland in fourth-, fifth- and sixth-places respectively.
So that forced Canada into the qualification round — and into vengeance mode — against Scotland, which was the only other team to hand Homan & Co. a loss in the round robin.
That decision in the second game of the schedule put them behind the eight-ball in the long run.
“We tried not to get down about the (loss to Scotland) and just learn from it,” added Fleury. “Since then, we’ve been trending in the right direction, so we’re feeling good.”
Included were two wins Friday — 9-2 over Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini (4-8) and 7-5 over China — to wrap up the round robin and ensure their top-three finish.
HOW DO THE PLAYOFFS WORK?
Here’s how the next few days go …
• The top two teams from the round robin — Switzerland and Korea — earned byes to the semifinal round
• The third-place team played the sixth — Canada v. Scotland — and the fourth-place team faced the fifth — with No. 4 China edging No. 5 Sweden 8-7 on a brilliant last-rock shot — in qualifying games
• Winners of those qualifying games advanced to the semifinals (3 a.m. ET, Saturday, TSN), with the No. 1 seed — that’s Switzerland — facing China and the No. 2 seed — that’s Korea — playing Canada
• The losers of those semis play each other in the bronze-medal game (9 p.m. ET, Saturday, TSN).
• The semifinal victors then play each other for gold medals and the world title in the championship finale (3 a.m. ET, Sunday, TSN)
HOW DID CANADA BEAT SCOTLAND IN THE QUALIFIER?
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.
Homan opted for the aggressive shot — and it paid off in spades. Canada executed it perfectly.
“We were in the early ends, and we had an opportunity there,” Homan said. “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.”
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,” Homan said. “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.”
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 straight-back run-double, raising her own stone into the house to remove both Scottish counters and rolling the shooter into the 12-foot circle for a score of three.
“To be able to blast out helps,” Homan said. “They were making really good freezes and 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.”
Team Homan didn’t rely solely on its big-weight hits. In the fifth end, the skip 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.
HOW DID CANADA BEAT CHINA?
Canada controlled its game against China from start to finish, with the opposition struggling to pressure Homan for most of the game.
Despite having the hammer in the first and third ends, Wang was limited to singles, thanks to strong defensive play from Canada. When Homan had hammer in the second and fourth ends, China could not disrupt Canada’s shot-making. Homan’s team capitalized, scoring two points with ease both times.
Homan made a heads-up play in the second end after Fleury’s draw came in heavy. The squad held the line to tick off a centre guard, waning just enough momentum for the stone to stick in the back 12-foot, setting up a draw for two. In the fourth, Canada executed a clean takeout to secure another deuce.
China aimed for a blank end in the fifth but couldn’t fully remove one of the Canadian stones. That left Canada lying two, forcing China to take a single and trail at the fifth-end break.
Canada kept the pressure on China despite holding the lead. Team Homan added another two points in the sixth end with a well-executed hit. The seventh end featured more rocks in play, with China holding hammer, but Team Wang came up light on a draw attempt, handing Canada a steal of one. In the eighth, China had a chance to score two, but a roll-out on the hit limited the team to a single.
China applied some pressure in the ninth, leading Canada to play it safe and throw away its final stone, giving up a steal of one. Even so, Canada maintained a two-point lead with hammer heading into the 10th end. Team Homan ran China out of stones in the final frame to seal the victory.
“We feel good about the game we put together,” Fleury said. “We made a lot of shots out there and had a good idea of what the ice was doing. We’re feeling ready for tomorrow.”
HOW DID CANADA BEAT 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,” Wilkes said. “It was so well thrown and so well called, and to just tap it that little extra inch was huge. It was a great start to the game.”
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%, with Homan standing out as the highlight with a perfect 100% game.
Canada has the highest shooting percentage among all teams this week at 88.6%, and all four Canadians are in the top two among their positions.
“It’s such a long week,” Wilkes said. “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.”
EXTRA ENDS
Korea’s two-win finish Friday — 6-2 over Italy and 8-7 over USA’s Tabitha Peterson (3-9) — locked Gim and her home-town team into that coveted second spot ahead of Canada. Just as important was Switzerland’s two-win wrap-up — 11-7 over Sweden and 7-6 over Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont (5-7) — to secure Tirinzoni & Co. top spot after the round robin … Other scores on Friday’s concluding day of the round robin saw: Turkey’s Dilsat Yildiz (3-9) defeat Lithuania’s Virginija Paulauskaite (0-11) 8-2, Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura (4-7) defeat Norway’s Marianne Roervik (5-7) 6-3; Turkey top USA 8-3; Scotland down Denmark 10-5; China beat Scotland 7-2; and Sweden edge Japan 7-6 … Kadriana Lott and Colton Lott defended their title at the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship on Friday in Summerside, P.E.I. The team from Gimli, Man., counted one in an extra end to edge the Halifax tandem of Marlee Powers/Luke Saunders 9-8 in the finale. The Lotts finished 10-1 at the five-day event, including a sweep of four playoff games, which featured respective elimination-game wins of 10-4, 9-4 and 6-5 over Paige Papley/Evan Amsterdam, Nancy Martin/Steve Laycock and Kira Brunton/Jacob Horgan for results to get them to the championship draw … Also in Summerside, winners of the 2025 Canadian U-21 World Mixed Doubles Curling Qualifier were decided. Dominique Vivier (Navan, Ont.) and Nick Codner (Torbay, N.L.) will represent Canada at the inaugural World Junior Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. Vivier/Codner (6-3) defeated Sierra Tracy/Noah Riggs (7-1 of Oromocto, N.B.) 7-5 in the qualifier final to earn the right to wear Canadian colours at the 29-team worlds event slated for May 6-11 at Edmonton’s Saville Community Sports Centre.
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