Defending champ Homan loses again at Canadian Curling trials

Early losses to the bottom two seeds at Canada's Olympic curling trials have put defending women's champion Rachel Homan in a tough spot at the SaskTel Centre.

SASKATOON – Early losses to the bottom two seeds at Canada’s Olympic curling trials have put defending women’s champion Rachel Homan in a tough spot at the SaskTel Centre.

After falling to Jacqueline Harrison in the round-robin opener, Homan dropped a 9-5 decision to Krista McCarville on Sunday that left her in an 0-2 hole with the tournament’s big guns still to come.

“You can’t really think about an 0-2 (start) versus anything else,” said Homan’s third Emma Miskew. “I know there’s a ton of great teams here. So teams are going to lose and teams can beat each other. We just have to do what we can control.”

Homan had some time to reset after the rough start. She’s not back on the ice until Monday night against Kelsey Rocque.

A murderers’ row of Canadian women’s curling talent awaits later in the week.

Still to come are 2014 Olympic champion Jennifer Jones, world No. 1 Tracy Fleury, two-time reigning national champion Kerri Einarson, along with Laura Walker and Casey Scheidegger.

“It’s not the start we wanted but you never go into any bonspiel wanting to go 0-2,” Homan’s coach Marcel Rocque said.

“So I guess in a regular triple-knockout we’re in the C (draw). You lose one more and maybe you go home. But maybe you get a tiebreaker here.”