Gangneung, Republic of Korea
Monday 20 February 2017

In Monday (20 February) morning’s seventh session of women’s round-robin play, Scotland regained first place in the standings, winning 9-7 over Japan.

Meanwhile, Russia found consistency against USA, winning 10-5 for their second victory so far at the VoIP Defender World Junior Curling Championships 2017.

In the third game of the session, Turkey and Switzerland fought a close game that saw the lead change five times before Switzerland won 8-6.

Japan started the scoring against Scotland with one point in the first end. Scotland responded with one point in the second and stole another point in the third end for a 2-1 lead. Japanese skip Misaki Tanaka secured two more points in the fourth end to take the lead at 3-2, and Scotland followed that example by taking two points of their own in the fifth end.

After the halfway point, Scotland blanked their opponents in the next two ends, but Japan sent two stones deep into the house to score three points in the eighth end. A series of draws in the ninth end gave them two points for 9-6, and they ran Japan out of stones in the tenth, with a final score of 9-7.

Russia faced fourth-place USA in this session and took the lead early in the third end, 3-1, with a one-point steal. In the fifth end, Russian vice skip Daria Morozova delivered a double take-out to let skip Maria Baksheeva place a third stone into the house for three points.

USA fought back with two points in the eighth end however, Russia’s steadiness played in their favour as they scored a further two points in the ninth end to win the game 10-5.

This win keeps Russia’s play-off hopes alive, with three more games to play, and advances them to seventh in the standings.

A close third game between Turkey and Switzerland had both teams fighting for the lead.

Looking for their second win, Turkey carved out an early advantage in the fourth end by scoring three points to bring the score to 4-2. Switzerland, then matched their two-point end in the fifth end and scored two again in the sixth end – by clearing two of Turkey’s stones.

Despite a back and forth game until the eighth end, Switzerland found the edge that gave them one point in the eighth end. They then stole another single in the ninth end. There was no score in the tenth end giving Switzerland the 8-6 win that puts them in a three-way tie for fourth place on the rankings – with Korea and USA.

They said it

Sophie Jackson; skip Scotland (after 9-7 win over Japan) : “That was pretty solid from my team. I missed a couple [shots] though – again! I’m just needing to stop missing the easy shots. I’m struggling with my draw weight. We’re looking pretty good with three games to go. We were always going for a medal and we’ll still be going for that. We feel pretty good out there.

Maria Baksheeva; skip, Russia (after 10-5 win over USA) : “We are really happy because this was our last chance to get to the play-offs. We were really nervous, we just wanted to show our best, and concentrate more on our stones. Today, we played much better than yesterday. The result is on the board.”

Selina Witschonke; skip, Switzerland (after 8-6 win after Turkey) :
“It wasn’t my best game so I think that’s the reason I’m more nervous than normal. We had one end, I think it was the fourth, when they took three points, but I think it was all together. I think we played as a team with communication together. I am very happy that we could win this game.”

Results women's session seven : Scotland 9-7 Japan; Russia 10-5 USA; Turkey 6-8 Switzerland

Standings after women’s session seven (W-L) :

Scotland 5-1
Canada 4-1
Sweden 4-1
Korea 3-2
Switzerland 3-2
USA 3-2
Russia 2-3
Japan 1-3
Turkey 1-5
Hungary 0-5

For live broadcast information from these championships visit,  www.worldcurling.org/broadcast

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