Homan holds off Fleury, seals spot in Trials

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This article was published 02/12/2019 (2423 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BEATING Rachel Homan is never easy, but when you give up a four-ender early in the game, it becomes nearly impossible.

East St. Paul’s Tracy Fleury fell 9-4 to Ottawa’s Homan on Sunday in Leduc, Alta., in the Canada Cup final. With the win, Homan earned $40,000 and becomes the first team to secure a spot in the 2021 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Saskatoon. Fleury’s team will take home $25,000 for reaching the finals of the seven-team event.

It could’ve potentially been a different story if the start of the game went a bit smoother for Team Fleury. Trailing 1-0 in the second end, Fleury needed a draw inside the eight-foot to score a pair, but she missed the mark and had to settle for one. The game fell off the rails in the next end. Both skips were down to their final throws and Homan, who had the hammer, had three rocks sitting in the house. Fleury tried to draw behind a pair of guards, but fell short. Homan took advantage and scored four to make it a 5-1 game after three ends.

“It kind of snuck up on us a bit… We couldn’t quite get my last one buried there,” Fleury told the Free Press in a phone interview after the game. “Team Homan played really well and it was hard to come back from that, for sure.”

Later Sunday, Toronto’s John Epping beat Calgary’s Kevin Koe 7-4 in nine ends for his first Canada Cup men’s title and a place in the Olympic Trials.

Fleury made it to the final after beating Carey 9-4 on Saturday night. Carey has struggled against the East St. Paul rink, as she’s 0-4 against Fleury this season. Fleury only lost twice at the event, with both losses coming at the hands of Homan. Not claiming a spot at the trials after such an impressive week is disappointing, but Fleury said there’s no need to worry. There’s plenty of time to be one of the nine teams in Saskatoon battling it out to represent Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“There are so many great teams in Canada that it’s challenging to qualify for the Olympic trials. I think all the teams here were really gunning for that first spot,” Fleury said.

“I think the teams that do get the early spots they can kind of relax a little bit and it takes a little bit of stress off. But at the same time, there’s still a couple of years to go and a lot more opportunities to get a spot.”

Even with Sunday’s frustrating result, Fleury will return home from Leduc as the top-ranked women’s team in the Canadian Teams Ranking System. Fleury, a Sudbury, Ont., native, is in her second season as skip for vice-skip Selena Njegovan, second Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish. Although they won the Manitoba Scotties last year, the team looks to have risen to another level this season as they won the Masters in North Bay, Ont., last month. It was the first Grand Slam title in Fleury’s career.

“I think last year was just a lot of learning. Everything was very new for us. So, just getting to know each other and learning our tendencies (has helped) and now I think we just have more systems in place. We’re more comfortable out there,” Fleury said.

St. Vital’s Jennifer Jones and Gimli’s Kerri Einarson had tough weeks in Leduc as both teams missed the playoffs with 2-4 records.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31