Eve Muirhead’s Scots force tie-breaker with China

Canada's Jill Officer watches after releasing her stone against Japan. Picture: AP

That result put Eve Muirhead’s team into a tie-breaker this morning with China for the fourth and final place in the medal play-off games. Against Switzerland, the Scots had no real answers as their opponents scored two points every time they had last stone advantage.

After the game, skip Muirhead said: “That was frustrating. They played well and we’re just not playing like we usually do, it’s tricky stuff.”

Looking forward, she added: “It’s still in our own hands, we just need to step up.”

The Scots played much better against Sweden. Muirhead had a hit and stay for two points in the fourth end to give her team the lead for the first time in the game at 4-3, a lead they were never to give up. In the seventh end, Muirhead drew her last stone into the house to score three points and move to 8-4 and on the way to victory.

After that game, she added: “That was our best performance of the week by a country mile. We really dug deep there and gave our best performance. We’ve put ourselves in the position now – we’ve still got a chance.”

Switzerland topped the rankings and will now face second-placed Canada tomorrow morning in the Page 1-2 play-off, while Russia await the winner of the China-Scotland tie-breaker.

NOH World Women’s Curling Championship: Sapporo, Japan.

Session 15: USA 5, Denmark 8; Germany 5, Canada 7 (extra end); Finland 5, China 6; Switzerland 8, Scotland 6.

Session 16: Japan 5, Canada 8; Denmark 7, Norway 1; Scotland 10, Sweden 7; Russia 8, Finland 2.

Session 17: China 6, Russia 11; Sweden 5, Switzerland 7; Norway 8, USA 5; Japan 10, Germany 5.

Standings after 17 sessions: Switzerland won 10, lost-1 (Qualified for the Page Play-offs); Canada 9-2 (Qualified for the Page Play-offs); Russia 8-3 (Qualified for the Page Play-offs); China, Scotland 7-4 (Tie-Breaker); Japan 6-5; Sweden 5-6; Denmark, Germany 4-7; USA 3-8; Finland 2-9; Norway 1-10.