Canada’s Jacobs gets to 2-0 in Pan Continental Curling, Homan drops opener

VIRGINIA – Canada’s Brad Jacobs won a second game in a row to start the Pan Continental Curling Championship with a 10-3 victory over Marc Pfister of the Philippines on Tuesday.

Defending champion Rachel Homan dropped her first game of the event with an 11-5 loss to Japan. She rebounded with a 10-2 win over New Zealand in the evening draw.

The Pan Continental is a regional qualifier for the men’s and women’s world championships in 2026.

Canada is already assured a berth in the women’s world championship as the host country March 14-22 in Calgary.

The top four countries in the men’s Pan Continental join host United States in the field of next year’s men’s championship in Ogden City, Utah, from March 27 to April 4.

Jacobs opened with a 10-4 victory Monday over China’s Xiaoming Xu in the first meeting between the two teams since Jacobs beat Xu for the bronze medal in April’s world championship in Moose Jaw, Sask.

Jacobs, vice Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert out of Calgary’s Glencoe Club were in control against the Philippines, whose skip Pfister has curled internationally for Switzerland.

“From lead to skip, we played quite well,” said Jacobs. “Benny was setting the ends up beautifully and that always makes it a lot easier from that point on. So I think I would give player-of-the-game to Ben.”

Jacobs’ foursome is among eight men’s teams that will vie to represent Canada in February’s Winter Olympics in the Nov. 22-30 trials in Halifax, so they see the Pan Continental as important preparation.

Jacobs, who skipped Canada to Olympic gold in 2014 with Ryan Fry, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden, is in his second season with his current teammates. They’ve worked with Ottawa sport psychologist Jason Boivin on their on-ice communication.

“Our theme so far this season has been about learning,” Jacobs said. “We’ve had some really good discussions as a team and with Jason on the way here, and we really think that we figured a few things out in order to streamline our communication and improve it. 

“Communication, clock management, game planning, decisive decision-making, certainty — these are words that we talk about all the time as a team and that all of that stuff helps with the time clock.”

The Canadian men play both South Korea’s Soo-Hyuk Kim and New Zealand’s Sean Becker on Wednesday.

Homan gave up five in the third end and countered with three in the fourth. But the Canadians couldn’t gain ground on Satsuki Fujisawa’s rink that scored deuces in the fifth and seventh ends. Homan shook hands after seven.

“They’re a good team, and we weren’t as sharp as we wanted to be,” said Homan. “But we learned a lot about the rocks and ice during that game.”

Homan, vice Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes had a tight turnaround after winning the Co-op Tour Challenge Grand Slam women’s final Sunday in Nisku, Alta.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2025.