Michelle Englot slides into Tour Challenge quarters with win over Chelsea Carey

CRANBROOK, B.C. – Winnipeg’s Michelle Englot earned a spot in the quarter-finals of the Tour Challenge after downing Calgary’s Chelsea Carey 7-2 in a tiebreaker on Friday night.

Englot led 3-1 through three ends and blew the draw open in the fourth with a score of three.

Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg also pushed herself through to the quarters after beating Japan’s Ayumi Ogasawara 6-2 in a second tiebreaker.

Seven of the eight quarter-final spots are set on the women’s side, with the last one going to the winner of Saturday morning’s tie-breaker draw between Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque and defending champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.

Ottawa’s Rachel Homan and Allison Flaxey of Caledon, Ont., are the top seeds moving on after going 4-0 through round-robin play.

They are joined by Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting and Tracy Fleury of Sudbury, Ont.

The men will need two tie-breaker draws to decide its final eight skips.

Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., grabbed a spot in one tiebreaker after beating last year’s champion Kevin Koe of Calgary 6-4 on Friday.

Jacobs will play Swden’s Niklas Edin in the first tiebreaker. American John Shuster plays Thomas Ulsrud of Norway in the second men’s tiebreaker.

Scotland’s Kyle Smith will face Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers in one quarter-final while Team Gushue, of St. John’s, N.L., plays Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock.

Team Gushue is currently being skipped by Mark Nichols with Brad Gushue recovering from surgery.

John Morris of Vernon, B.C., the only skip on the men’s side to go 4-0 in round robin, and Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen await the tiebreaker winners.