Team Homan one win from playoffs in women’s curling

Rachel Homan and Team Canada, seemingly in danger of missing the playoffs four days ago, are suddenly one win away from the semifinals in women’s curling at Milano Cortina 2026.

A hard-fought 8-7 extra-end win over Stefania Constantini of Italy (2-6) Wednesday evening improved Canada’s record to 5-3. That put them into a three-way tie for third place with Tabitha Peterson of the United States and Gim Eun-ji of Korea.

It took a last-rock draw by Homan, a great line call by Tracy Fleury, and superb sweeping by Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes to drag the stone to the edge of the button where it out-counted Constantini’s stone by mere inches.

The win is Homan’s fourth straight after a shaky 1-3 start. They’re still not out of the woods, but now their fate is in their own hands. Beat Korea in the final draw of the 10-team round robin Thursday morning and Canada is in the semifinals.

“That’s what we’ve been fighting for all week, just try to be in control of our own destiny,” the 36-year-old Homan said after the tough match that saw the team struggle at times with the rocks or the ice. “

We’ll take as much as we can out of that game. The rocks were papered just a couple of days ago so we’re still learning, still trying to move a couple of rocks around and make sure they’re in the best hands.”

It was not an easy win for Team Canada. Ahead 7-4, Homan came within a whisker of giving up four to Italy in the tenth end that would have resulted in losing the game and their playoff hopes. Homan’s only shot was to try a triple takeout but she was thin, barely got two Italian stones, and left Constantini a draw for three and a tie.

One end earlier, a Homan draw, again aided by strong sweeping, just spun into the button to give Canada a two count that would ultimately prove essential to survive Italy’s tenth end try to grab a win.

Anna Hasselborg of Sweden finished their round robin play in first place at 7-2 with Silvania Tirinzoni of Switzerland second at 6-2. Those teams have clinched semifinal berths.

After their three losses, the Homan foursome found their game midway through a 10-5 win over Wang Rui of China. Down 2-0 after three ends, Homan’s double raise takeout led to a four-point fourth end and the team scored three more in the sixth and they haven’t looked back since.

They followed with a 9-6 win over Sayaka Yoshimura of Japan and then knocked Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg from the unbeaten ranks with an emphatic 8-6 victory.

There is one more key game in the final draw, Switzerland versus the United States, which could impact the final standings. One thing is certain: Canada has to win to advance. A loss and even if the U.S. loses to Switzerland to leave Canada and the U.S. tied, the Peterson team would advance on the strength of having beaten Canada in the round robin 9-8.