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.
鈥淚t feels pretty good,鈥 Einarson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always nice to play great and make it into another final.鈥
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,鈥 Einarson said of rebounding from the two-point deficit. 鈥淚 was kicking a little hard and once I felt that, I regrouped and strung a couple together.鈥
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 春色直播was first published Sept. 30, 2023.