ESBJERG, DENMARK
March 25, 2011

Apart from one wobble in the eighth, end when skip Amber Holland missed a double take-out to allow Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott a draw for three, Canada were in control of their Friday afternoon tie-breaker at the Capital One World Women’s Curling Championship in Esbjerg, Denmark, eventually running out as 8-6 winners.

Canada will now face Denmark in Saturday morning’s Page three versus four Page Play-off game.

Canada, Denmark and Switzerland had finished the round-robin on seven wins, but Denmark had the best record among them to qualify in third place over, forcing the tie-breaker game between Canada and Switzerland.

Holland controlled this game from the off, choosing to blank the first end before establishing a lead that she kept throughout by scoring two points in the second. She built on that throughout and had a four point 7-3 lead after seven ends.

In the eighth, Holland missed a double take-out with her first stone, and this gave Ott as free draw into the house for three to score the three points that tightened up the game.

However, Canada regained control, blanking the ninth, and then Holland produced a perfect draw onto the button in the tenth for their 8-6 win.

Canada will now face Denmark on Saturday morning, with the winner progressing to the semi-final. Before that Sweden will face China in the Page one versus two Play-off game on Friday evening, with the winner of that going direct to Sunday afternoon’s final, and the loser having a second chance to progress by way of the sole semi-final.

Afterwards, Holland said, “That’s number one target achieved. Obviously we had to win that to get to where we needed to in the play-offs, so... just got to keep playing”.

She explained the mistake in the eighth that gave Switzerland a three, saying, “I just over-swept my first shot. You don’t like giving up a three, but we were up four, so if there is any time to do it, that’s the time, and one up playing the ninth end with hammer is still pretty comfortable”.

Holland also praised the performance of her team, “the girls played really well. They had a lot of ends tied up and set up for me and that took the pressure off, and I just needed to finish a few off – some I did, some I didn’t”.

And on her prospects, she said, “we can win this title, why not? We just have to keep putting good games together and keep doing what we’re doing and stay consistent. Yes, it’s definitely there for the taking.

After the game that ranked her in fifth place overall, Swiss skip Mirjam Ott said, “we feel disappointed – we wanted to win. We had a good game but they played really well. We were a little bit unlucky today – but we tried, we tried hard and we had a good game”.

Standings after Round-robin & tie-breaker game
1. Sweden 9-2
2. China 8-3
3. Denmark 7-4
4. Canada 8-4
5. Switzerland 7-5
6. Russia 6-5
7. USA 6-5
8. Germany 5-6
9. Scotland 4-7
10. Norway 3-8
11. Korea 2-9
12. Czech Republic 2-9

RESULTS:
Tie-breaker: Switzerland 6, Canada 8.

UPCOMING GAMES:
Friday 25 March
19:00 local – Page 1v2 Playoff: Sweden v China (winner goes directly to final on Sunday)

Saturday 26 March
10:00 local – Page 3v4 Playoff: Denmark v Canada
15:00 local – Semi Final (loser of 1v2 Playoff v winner of 3v4 Playoff)

Sunday 27 March
10:00 local: Bronze Medal Game (loser of 3v4 playoff v loser of semi final)
15:00 local: Gold Medal Game (winner of 1v2 playoff v winner of semi final)

TV and Web coverage from the event: https://wwcc2011.com/tv-web-coverage
Live Scores: https://wwcc2011.com/live-scores
Event website for news & photos: https://wwcc2011.com
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