U.S. women's eliminated from curling after loss to Japan

BEIJING - Team USA was down too far and didn't have enough stones left to make up the difference. So it conceded to Japan during the tenth end to lose 10-7, which effectively eliminated the United States from the Olympic women's curling tournament.

It finished 4-5 in round-robin play for the second consecutive Olympics. It lost its final three matches of round robin and failed to topple any of the top teams. Skip Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth and Becca Hamilton were part of the previous team, too, so they are dealing with another dose of disappointment.

But Peterson said she believes there is progress being made that goes beyond what their recent records at the Olympics say.

"It's hard because this is such a tough field," she said, "and we play these teams on the tour and I'd say we're probably overall like 50-50 against these teams in general. So we knew it was going to be tough. But, yeah, of course there's progress. There's always stuff to learn from every single game and we'll see what happens going forward."

After the concession, USA and Japan players traded fist bumps. Then Peterson hugged her sister, Tara, who is on the team for the first time.

"We've fought hard and feels really good to kind of do it with her," Tabitha Peterson said. "Obviously not the result we wanted, but we're happy that we have each other and, the team, we're gonna just take it — take it as it is and learn from it and grow."

The world curling rankings had Team USA sixth and Japan seventh. But the Japanese made fewer mistakes Wednesday and made Team USA pay when it did.

Disaster struck early and put Team Peterson in a significant hole in the second end. Tabitha Peterson had the hammer and was looking to draw in for a point. To do so, she needed to curl around one of her own stones. Instead, she clipped it and fell short. Instead of a point for USA, Japan grabbed three points to take a 4-0 lead.

There were points to be had in the fifth, but Peterson's takeout attempt failed to clear one Japan stone. Instead of grabbing three points, Team USA had to settle for one. It was one of those nights for Team Peterson. Peterson and Roth, the vice skip, will want a few shots back.

Team USA looked on the brink of elimination after falling behind 4-0 early. But it hung around and, in the seventh end, took advantage of a couple Japan errors to score four points and tie the match at 7-7.

"That was huge," skip Peterson said. "We knew we needed a big end and we got it, but then we're still tied at that point with three ends left."

So true, the seventh might have been the only end Japan showed some weakness. The Japanese made shots all night, high-fived each other and pounced on every USA misfire. After Team USA tied the score, Japan's takeout to end the eighth gave it two points and a 9-7 lead. Peterson's attempt to draw in for a point fell just short, Japan stole the point and went into the tenth end ahead 10-7.

The USA women's team has not advanced into the semis since 2002. Team USA then went 2-7, 2-7 and 1-8 in the round-robin rounds of the next three Olympics before Peterson joined the program. It hasn't led to a medal yet, but there's momentum from greater local interest in curling, USA Curling moving its national headquarters to Eagan and the team knocking on the door to the semis the past two Olympics.

Petersen said it takes more exposure, more tournaments and getting better against stronger competition to take the next step.

"So just more games," she said. "More games helps us fine-tune everything."