Homan deep-sixes Matsumura in quick title showdown

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This article was published 23/10/2016 (2733 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — It had every ingredient necessary for a Cinderella story complete with a fairy tale ending.

Instead, Ottawa’s Rachel Homan, the top-ranked women’s curler in the world, exerted her dominance on Japan’s Chiaki Matsumura and her 86th ranked team in a 9-4 six-end romp at the $60,000 Canad Inns Women’s Classic at the Portage Curling Club in Portage la Prairie Monday.

Homan, along with lead Lisa Weagle, second Joanne Courtney and third Emma Miskew, claimed the $15,000 first-place prize with their first win at the Women’s Classic.

“I think the whole team played really well. It was strong,” said Homan, who captured the Mixed Doubles Classic two weeks ago after teaming with Alberta’s John Morris.

Homan played the antagonist role in what became the story of the weekend as Matsumura, a relative unknown in the world curling scene, surged to Monday’s final.

Playing in the ‘C’ event bracket for most the weekend, Matsumura evaded elimination five times before losing Monday night’s final.

“We had a good feeling, concentration and good ice,” said Matsumura’s lead, Hasumi Ishigooka.

Matsumura’s team took home $10,000 for its efforts.

Homan grabbed an early 2-0 lead with the hammer in the first end, hitting and sticking her final shot in the 12-foot to lie two.

After Matsumura cut Homan’s lead in half in the third, Homan burst the floodgates open.

Lying four, Homan needed to hit and stick to put five more on the board. She had to settle for four and a 6-1 lead, however, as the shot rock rolled past Matsumura’s only stone in the house.

Matsumura scored two in the fourth, giving her a glimmer of hope. But that was dashed in the fifth as Homan made an open hit and stick for three to give her team a 9-3 lead.

“It was a great game from my team, lots of big shots,” Homan said. “(We) kind of capitalized on some mistakes. They were in it right until the end. A couple rolls, an inch or two here and that was the game.”

Homan’s road to the final had a lone blemish after she lost her opening draw of the event to China’s Jie Mei.

From there, Homan moved to the ‘B’ bracket and never left, rattling off five straight victories including an 8-0 blanking of Olympic gold medallist Jennifer Jones.

Homan took down Anna Hasselborg’s team out of Sweden in the semifinals to book her trip to Monday’s final.

Hasselborg, who is ranked 11th in the world and sits in second on the World Curling Tour money list, qualified out of the ‘A’ bracket and didn’t play until Monday morning’s quarterfinal where she beat Jones 7-3 in seven ends after counting four in the seventh.

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Homan stole a single in each of the first two ends and cruised from there in the afternoon semifinal draw on Monday. The two-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts champions recorded another single in the fifth and then again in the eighth to claim a 4-2 win.

“They made a ton of shots. So did we,” Homan said. “We just persevered through with lots of team shots made.”

Matsumura took the longer road of the two to the final.

The Japanese team dropped their first draw on Friday to Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson and then dropped her third draw matchup to Michelle Englot’s team out of the Granite Curling Club in Winnipeg, demoting her to the ‘C’ bracket.

From there, Matsumura caught fire, knocking off Englot 8-3 in a rematch on Sunday and 2006 Women’s Classic champ Sherry Anderson to book herself a playoff appearance on Monday.

Matsumura clawed her way out of a 3-0 deficit in the second end, claiming two in the third and and stealing two more in the sixth.

Wang tied the the game 5-5 after drawing to the button in the eighth end, forcing extra ends. With Wang lying three, Matsumura drew to the four-foot for the win 6-5 win.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck