Homan rink earns crucial victory

RIGA, Latvia—Canada’s Rachel Homan picked up a critical victory in this afternoon’s draw at the world women’s curling championship, hitting a draw with her final throw for a 7-6 win over Italy.
“It was a great last judge by my front end and a great team end,” Homan noted.

“We made eight shots that end, so it was good.”
A loss would have sent the Ottawa skip back to the .500 mark and significantly weakened her playoff chances.
Instead, she took a solid 4-2 record into the evening draw against powerhouse Sweden.
Italian skip Diana Gaspari opened the scoring with a pair, but Homan answered with a deuce of her own in the second end.
Canada then scored three points in the fourth and led 5-4 at the break.
Homan added a single in the eighth before Italy tied the game with a pair in the ninth.
In other afternoon games, China’s Bingyu Wang handed Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson her first loss of the tournament, defeating the 2012 world championship silver-medallist 6-4.
Scotland’s Eve Muirhead dumped Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland 11-4 while Russia’s Anna Sidorova outscored Latvia’s Iveta Stasa-Satsune 9-7.
After 10 draws, Scotland and Sweden led at 5-1, with Russia alone in third at 5-2.
Canada and Japan were tied for fourth at 4-2.
Switzerland was at 4-3, followed by Germany and the United States at 3-3.
The top four rinks in the 12-team field will make the playoffs.
Round-robin play continues through Thursday night, with the medal games scheduled for Sunday.