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Kerri Einarson’s curling team battled, but fell 6-5 in an extra end to a fearless young Swiss foursome Tuesday at the women’s world curling championship in Calgary.
Switzerland won a sixth straight game to top the standings at 6-1 ahead of Canada at 5-1.
Xenia Schwaller had beaten Olympic silver medallist Silvana Tirinzoni twice in a best-of-three Swiss championship to punch a ticket to Calgary.
“When you have to play Tirinzoni to get out of your country, you’ve got to play fearless,” Einarson observed. “They’re a great young team. We’ve always had really good battles with them. I hope to play them again.”
Neither team generated a deuce with hammer until Canada converted in the 10th to tie the game 5-5 and force an extra end.
Einarson put a draw behind a guard to the side of the button and hoped for a Schwaller miss. But the 23-year-old coolly drew the pin for the win.
The 2024 world junior champions, with an average age of 22.5, posted a shooting percentage of 88 per cent to Canada’s 81.
“They’re really hard workers. They’ve got great attitude,” said their Canadian coach John Epping.
“We’ve tried to prepare them as much as possible for this moment. They’ve played in a ton of (Grand) Slams. They play a lot. They’ve had a breakthrough year winning lots of bonspiels and they’ve qualified and made semifinals at Slams, which helps you a lot when you get to an event like this, playing in front of crowds and on TV.
“Tonight was a big moment for them.”
Top 6 teams make playoffs
Canada faces Turkey (4-2) in the morning and Scotland (3-4) in the evening Wednesday.
The top six teams at the conclusion of pool play Friday advance to playoffs.
The top two earn direct entry into Saturday’s semifinals. The medal games are Sunday.
Sweden and South Korea were 5-2 ahead of Japan and Turkey both at 4-2.
China was 3-3, Denmark and Italy 2-4, Norway 1-5 and Australia and the U.S. both 1-6.
Tuesday was the first of three straight “split” days for Canada playing in morning and evening draws.
Schwaller led 3-2 in the seventh when Canadian third Val Sweeting had her first stone pulled for a hog-line violation.
Einarson overthrew an attempted tap on her first throw. Drawing against three, the Canadian skip got a piece of the button, but still gave up a steal of one to trail 4-2.
With every rock in play in the eighth, Einarson attempted a difficult triple raise to score two, but too much weight held Canada to a single to trail 4-3.
The Swiss took one in the ninth and led by two coming home. Einarson had a chance at a three-pointer for the win, but settled for two.
“It was a grind,” Einarson said. “We played really well. I had to make some big ones to keep us in it.
“We can sharpen up on a little bit on our weight control and rock placement.”
Canada broke a 5-5 tie by scoring four in the eighth end of a 9-6 win over Italy in the morning at WinSport Event Centre.
The rising temperature to 18 C outside made for a warm building inside.
Canada played on end sheets, right next to stands loaded with people watching the home team, in both the morning and the evening.
“It’s very warm in here, and I think it’s very pathy now that it’s kind of warm out,” Einarson said after the morning win. “If you’re in a good track, it’ll run. If you are outside of that, it is a little bit heavier, and I got caught a couple times.
“We’ll know what to expect now that we played a morning game and it is getting a little warmer outside, so we’ve just got to be able to adjust to that a little quicker.”
Einarson, Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Karlee Burgess out of Manitoba’s Gimli Curling Club seek their first world title.
They also want to keep the women’s crown in Canada after back-to-back victories by Rachel Homan’s team.
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