CHATHAM, Ont. — The playoff matchups are set for the Elite 10.
Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones and Olympic gold medallist Anna Hasselborg from Sweden have advanced through to the women's semifinals at the first Grand Slam of Curling bonspiel of the year after finishing round-robin play undefeated.
Jones and Hasselborg will be back on the ice Saturday evening for the semis, with the outcome of the morning quarterfinal draws dictating their opponents.
Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, Alta., will face Ottawa's Rachel Homan in one quarterfinal while Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni meets Edmonton's Laura Walker in the other.
On the men's side, it'll be Calgary's Kevin Koe against Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in one quarterfinal and Toronto's John Epping against provincial rival Glenn Howard of Penetanguishene, Ont., in the second.
Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers and Brad Gushue of St. John's N.L., earned byes to the semis as the top two seeds.
Originally a men's invitational, the Grand Slam of Curling added a women's division to the Elite 10 this season.
Points are scored in match play by either counting two or more rocks (with the hammer) or stealing at least one rock (without the hammer).
Teams earn three points for a regulation win, two points for a shootout win and one point for a shootout loss. The top six teams overall, regardless of pools, qualified for the weekend playoffs.
The Elite 10 has three additional unique rules: Stopwatches are banned, tick shots cannot be performed on guards sitting on the centre line until the fifth rock of play and teams have four minutes of thinking time per end.
The Canadian Press
