CurlingZone: Peterson comes in clutch to send USA to medal round

Tabitha Peterson (Photo: Anil Mungal) needed a precise draw to secure qualification for the USA.

By: Cameron Sallaj

For the first time since 2002, the United States women's curling team will play for an Olympic medal. On Thursday, the team survived a late charge by Switzerland to defeat the four-time world champions 7-6 and qualify for the knockout round.

It was a game of steady control for the American team consisting of Tabitha Peterson, Cory Thiesse, Tara Peterson and Taylor Anderson-Heide who began with hammer and opened the scoring with a count of one. The team then forced Switzerland to one before taking back-to-back singles in ends four and five, going ahead 3-1.

After forcing the Swiss again in six, Team Peterson pulled away with a hit for two in the seventh. The two teams then traded singles through eight and nine with the Americans still leading 6-3 coming home.

The United States made a critical error on their final stone of regulation by hitting and rolling away into the twelve-foot. This allowed Swiss fourth Alina Patz to play a soft-weight tap-back to score three for Switzerland and send the game into an extra end. Still, the Americans retained the crucial last rock.

Despite a poorly executed end by the USA, Tabitha Peterson came in clutch with her final shot of the game, drawing the four-foot against two Swiss counters in top of the four-foot to score one and lift the American team into the playoffs, 7-6 the final score.

With Great Britain winning their final game against Italy, the game against Switzerland became a do-or-die situation for the United States as a loss would've seen them eliminated on draw shot challenge. However, with the win, the team instead climbs to 6-3 and finishes the round robin ranked second overall.

In the semifinals, the United States and Switzerland will face off again as the loss dropped the Swiss team also to 6-3. On the other side of the bracket, top ranked Sweden will meet Canada who secured the final playoff spot with a win over South Korea.

Both semifinals get underway Friday at 8 am Eastern Time. The bronze medal game will then be played Saturday, also at 8 am, while the gold medal game will take place Sunday at 5 am.

Olympic Women's Standings - Round Robin

Q Sweden (Hasselborg): 7-2
Q United States of America (Peterson): 6-3
Q Switzerland (Tirinzoni): 6-3
Q Canada (Homan): 6-3
Republic of Korea (Gim): 5-4
Great Britain (Jackson): 5-4
Denmark (Dupont): 4-5
Japan (Yoshimura): 2-7
Italy (Constantini): 2-7
People's Republic of China (Wang): 2-7

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