In the penultimate round-robin women’s session, each game held significance in terms of play-off aspirations for the final three places.
Korea played Denmark, the Japanese met United States, ROC faced Sweden and lastly, Canada encountered China.
ROC versus Sweden
In a battle to earn themselves a play-off spot, Sweden played ROC. Sweden got forced to a single in the fifth end to make the score 4-3 for ROC.
The Swedes made a key hit, through a port, for two points to go regain the lead, 6-5, after eight ends.
The defending champions had a good set-up to steal in the tenth end, where skip Anna Hasselborg played a guard on her final stone, forcing ROC into a tough double raise.
ROC missed their final shot, giving Sweden a steal of two points and an 8-5 win.
Sweden’s second Agnes Knochenhauer said, “This was a really big win for us. This gives us the ‘Q’ and this is very important here. We fell behind early and we really had to work our way back and we did it great as a team.”
“We will go to bed with smiles on our lips but then it’s another game tomorrow”, she added.
Korea versus Denmark
Denmark led 5-3 after scoring three points in the fifth end.
The Koreans fought back with five points in the second half of the game, including a soft take-out for two points to win, 8-7, to keep their play-off hopes alive.
Japan versus United States
Japan extended their lead to 6-2 after four ends against United States, when Fujisawa Satsuki slightly moved over an American stone on the button, to score two.
United States’ skip Tabitha Peterson made a nose hit for four to level the game in the seventh after Fujisawa missed a double take-out attempt.
With a steal of one in the ninth end, Japan took a 10-7 lead into the tenth, where they ran the Americans out of stones to win their fifth game.
Chinami Yoshida, third for Japan said, “I love the Olympics and I love curling! There is always winning and losing because of curling, but when we lose I always want to enjoy because that’s why I’m here. So that’s why I’m smiling.”
“This is a big win for us because it was a tough situation losing two in a row so now it’s one of our strengths to come back stronger after losing.”
Canada versus China
In the fifth end, China made a hit-and-stay for two points after giving up a steal of two in the previous end to take a 5-3 advantage over the Canadians.
In the sixth end, China came up light on their final draw, leaving Canada’s skip Jennifer Jones an open draw for five points to make the score 8-5.
China made a draw for two in the seventh end and got a steal of one to tie the game, 8-8, after Jones rolled too far on a hit in the eighth.
The game went to an extra end, where Canada held the last-stone advantage. Jones was faced with a runback on her final shot, which over-curled, giving China the win, 11-9.
With these results, Japan, Korea, Canada, China and Great Britain still have a chance to claim the final two play-off spots alongside Switzerland and Sweden.
Women’s Session 11 results: Korea 8-7 Denmark; Japan 10-7 United States; ROC 5-8 Sweden; Canada 9-11 China
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