It’s no small feat to beat Rachel Homan twice over the span of a couple of days.
That’s exactly what Mississauga’s Jacqueline Harrison accomplished at the North Battleford Civic Centre Saturday morning as she picked up a 7-3 win over the Ottawa rink in a ‘C’ event final at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Meridian Canadian Open.
“I’m not sure if it’s fully sunk in yet as this is our first ever playoff appearance at a Grand Slam event, but we’re really excited about what we’ve accomplished so far,” Harrison said.
“This certainly gives us some confidence heading into the provincials as well. We’ve played the Homan rink a few times on the tour this year and they’ve got the better end of the deal. It’s nice to play two really good team games against a strong rink like theirs.”
Harrison, who defeated Homan by a score of 5-4 in the ‘A’ bracket Wednesday morning, also brought an end to a streak of 18 straight playoff appearances for the two-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champions.
“There were a couple of ends that were a little bit more wide open but the general feel of the game was very similar to how things played out the other day,” Harrison said.
“I need to make my last shot perfectly in the final end though. I needed to freeze my draw to the back four-foot right on her shot stone in order to leave her a tough hit. There wasn’t much else you could do in that situation.”
Harrison will now play Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni in the quarter-finals at 4 p.m.
Casey Scheidegger’s Lethbridge rink also clinched their first-ever playoff spot in a Grand Slam of Curling event as they earned a 9-4 win over Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton.
“It’s pretty awesome to achieve one of the goals that we’ve set out for ourselves,” Scheidegger said.
“We’ll have a to refine our draw weight a little bit though as we get ready to play Team Jones. They are one of the best teams in the world, and you’ll need to be sharp against them.”
The other ‘C’ event final saw Sudbury’s Tracy Fleury hold off a late comeback bid from Michelle Englot’s Winnipeg foursome as she picked up a 7-5 win and will now play Edmonton’s Val Sweeting in the quarter-finals.
“We feel like we’re playing well after losing our first two games,” Fleury said.
“We got off to a nice lead in the first few ends, which was good to have as we let things slip away a little bit at the end. We can be a little sharper with that part of our game as we head into the playoffs.”
The other women’s quarter-final will see Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg take on Caledon, Ont.’s Allison Flaxey.
The men’s playoffs will begin at noon with four quarter-final matchups.
Two of the top rinks in Canada will square off with another as Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs takes on Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen, while Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock will do battle with St. John’s Brad Gushue
The other contests will see American John Shuster facing John Morris of Vernon, B.C. and Sweden’s Niklas Edin squaring off with Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher.
