It was the end of the line for one local curler at the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts yesterday, while another earned herself an extra life as playoff action took centre stage in Kamloops, B.C.

After posting a record of 6-2 in Pool B and finishing just back of both Krista McCarville (Northern Ontario) and Jennifer Jones (Manitoba), the Rachel Homan Ontario rink that features Sudburian Tracy Fleury at vice dropped an extra-end heartbreaker to Christina Black of Nova Scotia in a cross-over of second and third place finishers.

Up 6-4 heading to the 10th and final end, Team Homan surrendered a deuce to the Black rink that was logjammed in with three other teams at 5-3 in Pool A fgollowing preliminary round action, all trailing the undefeated defending championship rink skipped by Kerri Einarson.

Still holding the hammer for the extra end, the pre-tournament favourites gave up a steal of one as Nova Scotia advanced to the final four to face McCarville late Friday night.

With a solid 6-3 rink, the NOCA colour bearers who boast Lockerby Composite and Laurentian University graduate Kendra Lilly at vice are now slotted into the 1 vs 2 page matchup against Jennifer Jones (Team McCarville handed the Jones rink their only round robin loss, beating the perennial powerhouse 11-8 in draw #2 last Saturday afternoon).

In moving one step closer to at very least duplicating their 2022 Scotties showing that would see McCarville, Lilly, Ashley Sippala and Sarah Potts took two in the second end with last rock advantage and added a steal of one in the third to go up 3-0 on the Black foursome.

<>The teams traded single points in ends four and five before Nova Scotia made things very interesting with a deuce of their own in the sixth, Northern Ontario still leading 4-3.

From this point on, it was an absolute clinic from McCarville and her team that never seems to get the respect they deserve, blanking three straight ends with lack rock advantage and picking up two with the hammer in the 10th end.

Canvassing six curling pundits prior to the start of competition, the TSN experts all had Team Homan in the final, with most favouring a battle with Einarson with a berth in Worlds on the line - but only three of the six selected Team McCarville as even qualifying for the playoffs from Pool B, despite the fact the women captured silver at nationals last year.

In the remaining page play-in game on Friday, Jones defeated Einarson 8-6, meaning that the defending Scotties champs must now get past Nova Scotia to earn another shot at whichever team does not book their spot in the final when McCarville and Jones go toe to toe tonight at 9:00 p.m.