Rachel Homan and Brendan Bottcher were set to face Brittany Tran and Rylan Kleiter in the Page 3 versus 4 playoff game at the Canadian mixed doubles curling trials after the two teams picked up wins in Friday’s early draw in Liverpool, N.S.
Homan and Bottcher advanced with a 9-6 win over the father-daughter team of Jim and Jaelyn Cotter.
Bottcher and Homan had four-point ends in the second and fourth to cruise to a comfortable win.
Tran and Kleiter needed an extra end to defeat Jennifer Jones and Brent Laing 8-6.
The 3 vs. 4 game was scheduled for later Friday.
The two teams finished tied atop Pool A on the round-robin with 6-1 records, but Tran and Kleiter earned the top seed by winning the head-to-head matchup with Homan and Bottcher during the preliminary round.
But Tran and Kleiter had their plans of competing in the Page 1 versus 2 playoff game scrapped when they were upset 10-5 by Lisa Weagle and John Epping, the second-ranked team in Pool B, in Thursday’s playoff-opening draw. That sent Tran and Kleiter to an elimination game against Pool A third seeds Jones and Laing.
Meanwhile, the Pool B winning team of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant beat Homan and Bottcher 8-4 Thursday to send the pair to a must-win game against the Cotters.
Peterman and Gallant were set to meet Weagle and Epping in the 1 vs. 2 playoff game later Friday. The winner of that match advances directly into Saturday’s final, while the loser plays the winner of the 3 vs. 4 match in a semifinal.
The trials winner can represent Canada in the 2026 Olympic Games if the duo also finishes high enough at the 2025 world championship to qualify their country for Italy.
The Olympic field will include the top eight ranked countries in the world, or the top seven plus host Italy if the Italians aren’t in the top eight. Canada currently ranks fifth.
WATCH l Breaking down the path to Olympic qualification at mixed doubles trials:
CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux breaks down the path to Olympic qualification for the Canadian curling mixed doubles trials.