Allison MacInnes isn't just carrying Kamloops' hopes in the women's draw of the Kamloops Crown of Curling, she's also taking on the world.

MacInnes and rinkmates Grace MacInnes, Amanda Brennan and Diane Gushulak earned one of eight quarterfinal berths by beating Prince George's Jen Rusnell 7-5 in seven ends in a C qualifier at Kamloops Curling Club on Sunday.

The male and female playoffs are today at 9 a.m., and 12:15 p.m., with the finals at 3:30 p.m.

MacInnes's rink is one of three from B.C. to qualify - Kelly Law of New Westminster won an A event, while Vancouver's Kristy Lewis qualified through B. They are joined by a strong international contingent featuring Korea's Min Jung Kim, China's Bingyu Wang, Switzerland's Michele Jaeggi, Russia's Olga Zyablikova and Japan's Shinobu Aota.

MacInnes is to play Wang this morning.

"The field is really strong this year," MacInnes said. "It's anybody's game out there."

MacInnes went on to note that the Canadian and international styles are different, and the international style lends itself to slower games. A Sunday C final between Aota and Russia's Liudmilla Privivkova went nine ends and took nearly three hours to play.

"It's the style of game they like to play," MacInnes said. "Sometimes when you get into the mix of things, they're not as used to a bunch of rocks in play. For certain teams, it does slow it down.

"That's why you really have to go out with just your game plan and try to force them to play that quicker style."

MacInnes took something of a circuitous route to the money round, losing in an A semifinal late Friday, before falling 8-2 to Kim in a B final on Sunday morning.

MacInnes bounced back Sunday to beat Leanne Ursel 5-3 in a C semifinal, before topping Rusnell.

MacInnes said taking the long route - as opposed to the shorter paths taken by Law, Jaeggi and Wang, who went 3-0 and won A berths - isn't necessarily a bad thing.

While the MacInnes rink was playing its way into the money Sunday, the A qualifiers had the day off.

"It's hard when you have that whole day off," MacInnes said. "You can sometimes get some practice in, but when you're playing games, you feel a bit more comfortable and know what the ice is doing."

Grant Olsen's Kamloops rink, which played in an A final on Saturday, finally qualified for the money by beating Vancouver's Sebastien Robillard 6-4 in a C final Sunday night.

Olsen's rink of Scott DeCap, Pat DeCap, Ron Douglas and John Maskiewich, is the only local quartet in the money. Other men's quarterfinalists are Jason Montgomery of Duncan, Neil Dangerfield of Victoria, Bryan Miki and Andy Bilesky of New Westminster, Vernon's Trevor Perepolkin, Korea's Chang-min Kim and Russia's Andrey Drozdov, who beat Kamloops' Dennis Graber 8-4 in a C final Sunday.

Olsen has to win three straight to win the $7,000 first-place cheque, starting with a quarterfinal with Montgomery this morning.

"They beat us twice last year in this 'spiel," Olsen said. "We're looking to get a little revenge."

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca