Canada's Homan, Morris overcome China to win 3rd straight in mixed doubles curling

After opening with a loss, Canada's Rachel Homan and John Morris have rebounded quite nicely in mixed doubles curling at the Beijing Olympics.

The Canadians withstood a late charge from China's Suyuan Fan and Zhi Ling to earn an 8-6 victory on Friday evening and record their third win in a row.

Italy tops the standings with a 4-0 record, just ahead of Canada and Great Britain (tied at 3-1), and Sweden (3-2). The top four nations from the 10-team field at the end of the round-robin advance to the semifinals.

"It's great. We had a really strong game. We are just trying to get better and better with every game," Homan said.

Playing with the hammer, China took a 1-0 lead after the first end from Fan's final stone. Homan played a perfectly-weighted raise shot with the hammer in the next end to put Canada in front 2-1.

Some accurate shotmaking by Homan allowed Canada to steal two in the third end. The Chinese scored two with final rock in the fourth end courtesy of Fan's take-out to make it a one-point game.

Fan's raise attempt in the fifth end didn't work out, allowing Canada to score two with last rock and open up a 6-3 lead.

WATCH | Homan, Morris earn 3rd consecutive victory:

China scored one in the sixth end with a draw to the tee-line from Fan to make it a two-point contest, but Homan's take-out to close on the seventh end allowed Canada to go up 8-4.

The Chinese drew for two in the eighth end, but came up short against the Canadians.

"We can match them [Canadian team] in strength, but there were some accidents in some key shots. Then the tide turned against us," Ling said.

WATCH | Homan, Morris hang on to defeat Switzerland:

Earlier on Friday, the Canadians edged the Swiss team of Martin Rios and Jenny Perret 7-5.