BRANDON, Man. — Steve Laycock remained in playoff contention at the Canada Cup with a 9-3 tiebreaker victory over Brad Jacobs on Saturday while Kerri Einarson came back for an 8-6 win over Val Sweeting in the lone women's tiebreaker.

Laycock, from Saskatoon, hit a double takeout in the fifth end to score five points. He added three more points in the seventh end for the win.

"A little shaky start (as) we weren't positioning our rocks really well, but we got a good setup in the top of the house in that fifth end," said Laycock. "They had to gamble a bit and they showed me enough on that last one so that we had a chance to make a big shot."

Jacobs, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is the reigning Olympic men's champion, but his rink has struggled at times this season.

"This is an eye opener for us," Jacobs said. "We've got to get a lot better if we expect to be in the Olympic Trials a year from now. We've got a lot of hard work ahead of us. I know we're committed to doing whatever it takes in order to play better.

"We've got to be a lot more consistent. It's back to the drawing board, the four of us with our coach, our sports psych, and I'm confident we can get better."

Laycock was scheduled to play John Epping of Toronto in the afternoon tiebreaker at the Keystone Centre. The winner was set to meet Winnipeg's Reid Carruthers in the evening semifinal.

"We have some momentum now," said Laycock. "We were a little bit tired at the end of the round-robin and I think it showed in our play. But a little bit of rest now and I think we're ready to go."

Team Gushue has already secured a spot in Sunday's final. Mark Nichols is serving as skip for the St. John's-based team with Brad Gushue out due to injury.

Einarson, meanwhile, made a double takeout to score three points in the 10th end for the victory. She caught a break when Dana Ferguson burned a stone after falling while sweeping her Edmonton skip's first-rock draw.

Einarson advanced to the semifinal against Ottawa's Rachel Homan later Saturday. The Winnipeg skip beat Homan 8-5 in their round-robin game on Wednesday.

"We definitely have to come out firing against Homan," she said. "I'm sure they're going to want to get us this time. We're definitely going to have to come out with our A game. We won't change our strategy. We just have to go out there and make some shots, put some pressure on them and capitalize on their misses."

Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones has already qualified for Sunday's women's final.

The Canada Cup winners will earn berths in next year's Olympic Trials. Jones and Homan have already qualified for that event, which will determine Canada's representatives at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

If Einarson doesn't win Sunday, the Trials berth will go to the leading team on the 2016-17 Canadian Team Ranking System as of May 1.

Calgary's Kevin Koe is the only men's skip who has qualified for the Trials. He did not reach the Canada Cup playoffs.

The Canada Cup winners will also qualify to play on Team North America at the Continental Cup next month in Las Vegas.