Team Canada advances to finals of 2018 Women’s World Curling Championships

Kaitlyn Lawes (left) and Jennifer Jones (right) (Katarzyna Wicik, Wikimedia Commons)

Team Canada is in the final of the 2018 Women’s World Curling Championship in North Bay, Ontario. On Saturday, Team Canada defeated the United States 9-7 in the semifinals.

Canada got off to a marvelous start as the United States struggled early and jumped into a quick 3-0 lead. Canada then went up 5-1 after three ends and 6-2 after five ends. However the Jones rink did not do a good job of protecting the lead as they saw the United States take two points each in the sixth and eighth ends, forced Canada to a single point in the seventh and stole a point in the ninth to tie the game at 7 points apiece.

It was the second straight day that Canada beat the United States as they also beat the Americans 8-5 to close out the round robin on Friday night. The round robin win over the Americans helped put Canada a perfect 12-0.

Canada has gone undefeated in the round robin at the last two Women’s World Curling Championships. Ottawa’s Rachel Homan was a perfect 11-0 last year in Beijing before being the first Canadian team to win a Women’s World Curling Championship since Jones won in 2008 in Vernon, British Columbia.

Earlier in the day on Saturday, the United States upset South Korea 10-3 and Russia 7-3 in the qualification games, which are similar to the quarterfinals. Sweden then beat Russia 7-6 in the first of two semifinals. The United States plays Russia for bronze on Sunday and Canada plays Sweden for gold.

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