Scotland beat Latvia by 9-5 in the second-last session of the women’s round robin to become the third team to qualified for play-offs.
Additionally, Japan, who also won in this session, 9-2 over Estonia, and Korea, who sat this session out, had already reached the play-offs. Now, there is only one more slot available and it will be decided between Latvia and Italy tomorrow (16 December).
After blanking the first end, Scotland’s Eve Muirhead opened the scoring with a solid draw for two points in the second end. The Scots moved to a 5-3 lead after the sixth end, when Latvia’s skip Santa Blumberga-Berzina played a take-out for one. In the ninth end, Scotland played an open hit-and-stay to score three points and win the game by 9-5.
Afterwards, Muirhead said, “Obviously, we’re delighted. Our number one goal coming here was to get that top four spot and we’ve done that. It’s been hard. It’d be nice to get another win tomorrow, just to keep the momentum going. I think every game we’ve played we’ve got better and we’re building a lot of good things.”
Germany faced Italy with both teams desperate for the win that would keep their campaigns alive.
Germany had a 3-1 lead at the halfway mark, thanks to single steals in both the fourth and fifth ends. In the ninth end, with the game tied at 4-4, Italy’s Stefania Constantini played a take-out on a German stone to score two points and take a 6-4 lead.
Then, in the tenth, Germany’s skip Daniela Jentsch played a thin double take-out to score two and force an extra end. In that extra end, Constantini made a perfect draw to the button behind cover and Jentsch could not remove it with her last. Italy won 7-6 without having to play their last stone.
After this win, Italy’s Constantini said, “That was a tight game. It was like a roller-coaster. Both teams gave it 100 per cent. I think Daniela made a great shot for two in the tenth. So, we played the extra end, and we won. That was our goal and now we’re focussed for tomorrow.”
Japan played Estonia in this session and after blanking the first end, their skip Fujisawa Satsuki had a draw to open the scoring with three points. In the next end, all four Estonia players had to sweep their last stone inside two Japanese stones to score one point and reduce Japan’s lead to 3-1. Japan then went on to win by 9-2 in seven ends.
Speaking later, Fujisawa said, “We were very comfortable in throwing draw weight, that’s why we performed well.”
Looking forward she said, “We’ll be doing nothing special [for the game tomorrow], we just want to relax and not be nervous. We are ready for the next game, and we are ready for a win.”
Turkey faced Czech Republic in this session and the Czechs came out on top, winning by 7-2, helped by a steal of three in the seventh end. However, neither of these teams are able to qualify for the play-offs.
Women Session Eight results: Czech Republic 7-2 Turkey; Latvia 5-9 Scotland; Germany 6-7 Italy; Japan 9-2 Estonia
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