OAKVILLE, Ont. — Kerri Einarson and Rachel Homan are set to clash in a battle of the top seeds on Sunday.
Top seed Einarson topped Kaitlyn Lawes 8-3 in the PointsBet Invitational women's semifinal on Saturday. The second-seeded Homan defeated Christina Black 10-5 in the other semifinal.
“It feels pretty good,” Einarson said. “It’s always nice to play great and make it into another final.”
After falling behind 2-0 in the opening end, Einarson notched singles in the next four ends to take the lead. Lawes's fourth-seeded squad cut the deficit to 4-3 in the sixth, but Einarson's side closed it out with four points in the following three ends to seal their ticket to the final.
"I just dialed back my kick a little bit,” Einarson said of rebounding from the two-point deficit. “I was kicking a little hard and once I felt that, I regrouped and strung a couple together.”
Homan, meanwhile, used a three-point fourth end to boost her side's lead to 7-3. Black's sixth-seeded team failed to get within three points from there as Homan had a two-point eighth end to wrap up the win.
In the men's semifinals, skips Matt Dunstone and Reid Carruthers each advanced to Sunday's final with 6-5 extra-end wins.
The fifth-seeded Carruthers scored one in the 10th end to tie the top-seeded Brad Gushue squad 5-5, and then stole one in the extra end to complete the upset. The third-seeded Dunstone gave up a steal of one in the 10th end to tenth-seeded Mike McEwen but used the hammer in the 11th to score one for a ticket to the final.
The PointsBet Invitational is the first Season of Champions event of the season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2023.
The Canadian Press
