![]() Saskatchewan's Rylan Kleiter (Photo: Anil Mungal/GSOC) defeated Italy's Joel Retornaz 7-6 to grab their first win on the 2025-2026 season in Trentino, Italy. By Connor Simms, #15 World-Ranked Rylan Kleiter, with Joshua Mattern at third, Matthew Hall and Trevor Johnson on the front end, are kicking off their season at the Trentino World Cup in Trentino, Italy. Kleiter is coming off their best season with some big wins. Coming off victories at the Grand Slam of Curling Tier 2 event, as well as making their first career Brier, they continue to establish themselves as a top team in the world. They kicked off this event with a loss against Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller. Their next game is against Italy's Joel Retornaz. Kleiter won the opening draw to the button for the hammer. After a blank in the first end, Kleiter found themselves playing a runback double for four points. Retornaz had the opportunity for three in the third end, but rolled out of the rings after their double, settling for the deuce. Kleiter was immediately able to respond, making a light-weight takeout around a guard for two more points. Retornaz responded with their second deuce of the game after a draw to touch the 8-foot. In the sixth end, Retornaz made a perfect tap to the back button, and Kleiter was unable to draw to the pin, giving up a steal of one. After a nice triple on Kleiter's first, they were able to blank the seventh. Retornaz was able to steal his single in the eighth to bring the game to an extra end. Retornaz came up heavy on the freeze attempt, leaving Kleiter shot rock and the 7-6 win. In their next game, Kleiter will face Switzerland's Michael Brunner on Saturday at 5:00 a.m. Central Time (CT) (12:00 p.m. Central European Time). They wrap up the round robin on Saturday against Japan's Shinya Abe at 1:00 p.m. CT (8:00 p.m. CET). All games will be streamed on the CurlingZone YouTube page. You can find the games link on the CurlingZone website by clicking the red play button next to the live linescore. |