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Tournament favorites Rachel Homan and Kerry Einarson opened Saturday with lopsided victories in the first draw of the 2025 Montana Curling Canada Qualifiers in Halifax.
Ottawa's Homan, the two-time reigning Canadian and world women's champion, tied three times in the third end and stole four more in the fourth en route to a 16-5 victory over Kate Cameron of St. Adolphe, Man.
“I felt like we learned the ice really well in practice and came out strong,” said Homan, whose team includes vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, alternate Rachelle Brown and coach Heather Nedohin. “We made very accurate shots and were happy to take the lead. “I think they had some problems with the ice, so luckily we didn’t have to take too many shots later in the game.”
Einarson, from Gimli, Manuel, opened the scoring with steals, two in the first end and four in the second, in a 12-5 win over local favorite Christina Black.
“I was really excited [to play Black in the opening draw]” said Einarson, a four-time Canadian champion who finished second to Homan in this year's Scotties Tournament of Hearts. “You get them at [their] first game to prevent them from continuing their winning streak and the crowd behind them. Our plan was to get the crowd out of the game a little early and we put a lot of pressure on them in the first half of the game.
“They're a great team. We always had really good fights with them. It was nice to get off to a good start.”
CBC Sports' Devin Heroux previews the upcoming 2025 Canadian Curling Trials in Halifax.
Lowes and Sturmey also won their first matches
In other Saturday afternoon games, Winnipeg's Caitlin Lawes stole a deuce in the third end and one in the ninth in a 7-4 win over Corrin Brown of Kamloops, B.C., and Edmonton's Selena Stermey stole two in the third and seventh ends in an 8-2 win over Calgary's Kayla Skrlik.
The first men's draw was scheduled for Saturday.
The winner of the men's and women's competitions will represent Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
