Team Homan needs to recharge in Cortina d’Ampezzo
It’s a sight Canadian curling fans haven’t seen in the past two years
Rachel Homan’s Team Canada lost their second-straight game in the women’s fours round robin by a 7-6 count to Great Britain Rebecca Morrison on Saturday morning.
The final score was misleading, as Great Britain permitted a Canadian steal of two on the last stone of the game.
CBC OlympicsMorrison was on fire during the match, shooting 86% compared to Homan’s 68%.
Great Britain are the defending champions. Former skip Eve Muirhead and two of her teammates promptly retired after winning the surprise gold in Beijing, and only Jenn Dodds remains, now throwing third stones.
Team GB were also unimpressive heading into Cortina d’Ampezzo, holding the lowest win percentage against the field at 25%.
The win over Canada was their first, after losses to Sweden and Italy.
Meanwhile, Canada has all the numbers behind them. Prior to these Games, in their career against this Olympic field, Homan and longtime teammate Emma Miskew were 99-33 for a 75% win percentage.
The math jumps to nearly 80% (62-16) since 2022, with Fleury and Sarah Wilkes in the lineup.
The GBR defeat comes after a first-ever Canadian Olympic women’s team Olympic loss to the United States on Friday. In opening draw action, the Canadians defeated Denmark.
Morrison scored three points in the third end and added a steal in the fourth.
Canada had a great opportunity to score multiple points in the seventh end. Trailing 5-2 with hammer and lying one behind cover, Canada third Tracy Fleury drew perfectly around the guards to lie two.
Morrison botched her clearance attempt, leaving a single British stone as a guard, and Homan attempted a come-around to lie three buried.
She was heavy from the outset, ticked off Fleury’s stone and into the open, and Morrison made a fine hit and roll, partially buried.
Homan’s runback to save a deuce was also a touch heavy, and Canada scored only a single to trail 5-3.
On end later, GBR miscues gave Homan a chance to lie three behind cover, but her stone ticked the guard and Morrison drew for a pair and a 7-3 lead.
Eight years ago in PyeongChang, Canada started out 0-3 before rattling off three wins in a row. The streak ended with losses to China and Great Britain.
In two other women’s morning matchups, Pacific-Asian teams defeated Europeans as China beat hosts Italy 8-7 and Japan dumped highly favoured Switzerland by a 7-5 count.