The cream always rises to the top.
Even though you might think this is a recap from the CO-OP Tour Challenge, the last Grand Slam of Curling event, it’s not.
Canada’s Team Rachel Homan will face Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni and Canada’s Team Matt Dunstone will go up against Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat at the KIOTI GSOC Tahoe finals in Stateline, Nev.
For Homan, it’s her eighth straight GSOC final and 10th finals match against Tirinzoni, where she currently holds a record of 7-2.
But Homan’s not the only Canadian with a streak of making the finals, Dunstone has now reached his third straight Slam final after beating fellow countryman Brad Jacobs in the semifinals.
Saturday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 17 – Men’s and Women’s tiebreakers
Kang 7, Einarson 0
McEwen 7, Retornaz 3
Gim 7, Kitazawa 2
Draw 18 – Women’s quarterfinals
Hasselborg 7, Yoshimura 6 (SO)
Tirinzoni 6, Gim 4
X. Schwaller 5, Fujisawa 4
Homan 7, Kang 2
Draw 19 – Men’s quarterfinals
Jacobs 7, Whyte 5
Y. Schwaller 7, Waddell 4
Mouat 5, McEwen 4
Dunstone 7, Epping 3
Draw 20 – Men’s and Women’s semifinals
Tirinzoni 6, X. Schwaller 4
Homan 6, Hasselborg 3
Dunstone 5, Jacobs 4
Mouat 6, Y. Schwaller 5
Best match
For the second straight day, Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs has delivered a stellar match.
But it shouldn’t be a surprise, though, considering his opponent, Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte.
With both teams wanting to advance past the quarterfinals, you could feel the importance of every shot, every decision.
After Jacobs got two in the fourth end to take a 4-2 lead into the break, Whyte wasted no time getting it right back in the fifth end, setting up a best-of-three ends.
Whyte would continue to push by stealing one in the sixth end after forcing Jacobs to a really difficult shot he couldn’t convert. Jacobs and his team responded with a clean, solid end that got them two points and a 6-5 lead heading into the eighth end.
Just like on Friday, though, the eighth end was the best for Team Jacobs. Collectively didn’t make a mistake and Jacobs came through with a great last stone.
Even though it looked like Whyte was only going to get his single anyway – which would’ve pushed it to a shootout – Jacobs wanted the win. He elected to play a tap-back onto Whyte’s stone covering the button and delivered, setting up the win to move on to the semifinals.
Best shot
We’ve seen enough. Xenia Schwaller has the clutch gene.
For the second straight GSOC event, Schwaller had the chance to advance into the semifinals with a game-winning shot in the eighth end, and for the second time, she came through. On Saturday, however, she made a shot she soon won’t forget.
As Schwaller got into the hack to throw her final stone, she could see two things. The first was three Satsuki Fujisawa rocks in the house compared to her lone stone that was sitting second shot. The second was a quarter of the rock she was trying to hit for the win.
Schwaller needed to angle her own back into Fujisawa’s shot rock all while keeping the shooter at least in the full eight-foot to secure the win.
Of course, she made the shot perfectly to beat Fujisawa and advance into her team’s second GSOC semifinal match of their careers.
Best sweep
When in doubt, trust the Harnden brothers.
Dunstone certainly knows that, and they came through for him once again in their quarterfinal match vs. Canada’s Team John Epping.
After Dunstone took advantage of a mistake in the first end to score four points, he gave up a deuce in the second and was facing a five-count with his final shot in the third end.
The game was quickly unravelling, and Dunstone needed to make the shot to settle things down.
But when Dunstone let go of the rock, you could tell if they had any chance of scoring, the Harndens needed to have a great sweep.
Thanks to the amazing effort by both Ryan and E.J., they were able to reach the full four-foot for the single point, but more importantly, it stopped the bleeding, which led to Dunstone settling in and cruising to a 7-3 victory.
Biggest momentum swing
On Friday, Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson made a shot to save the game and give her team the momentum. Saturday was the complete opposite for Einarson in her tiebreaker match.
Einarson blanked the first end vs. Korea’s Bo-Bae Kang with the hope she’d create a bigger score in the second. The plan was working as she had the chance to score three with her final stone. All she needed to do was make a thin double and keep the shooter.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and instead, Einarson slid way inside and wrecked on her own rock in the top eight-foot, giving Kang a steal of one.
In an end where Einarson was set up well, she got nothing and from there things spiralled.
Kang stole one more point in the third end thanks to another Einarson miss, but the fourth end was the deciding factor in the game.
Facing four, Einarson needed to get a piece of the button with her final shot to score, and if not, at least land in the four-foot to limit how many Kang would steal.
It didn’t matter, though, because Einarson didn’t even reach the house with her draw and as a result trailed 6-0 at the break.
Einarson shook after another steal in the fifth end to lose 7-0.
Top player
You can try and stop Mouat, but he’s going to do incredible things you’ve never seen before.
Mouat was in his bag all day Saturday. First against Canada’s Team Mike McEwen in the quarterfinals. He made multiple great shots to just narrowly beat McEwen 5-4 and advance into the semifinals, where he met Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller.
Schwaller and his team played arguably their best game of the year, but it still wasn’t enough as Mouat found a way.
When it looked like Schwaller had Mouat dead to rights after getting him to take a deuce in the seventh end to tie the game, Mouat delivered one last time.
With his final shot in the eighth, he made an incredible freeze that Schwaller could do nothing with and, disappointingly, ended up giving Mouat a steal for the win.
Something that will certainly haunt Schwaller for a while.
KIOTI GSOC Tahoe finals coverage starts Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET/ 11:30 a.m. PT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Featured matches
Men’s finals – Mouat vs. Dunstone at 2:30 p.m. ET/ 11:30 a.m. PT
Women’s finals – Homan vs. Tirinzoni at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT
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