Tough Day Three in Colorado

It was a tough day for Team Lin at the Olympic Trials today. Their first game was against Cristin Clark of Seattle. Charrissa scored 4 early on but Cristin battled back and the game went to an extra end. Charrissa didn't have the hammer and her last stone guard just didn't curl enough to cover all of her previous draw to the top 4. Cristin's sweepers were able to get her peel just past the guard and remove shot stone for the win. It was a really tough loss for the team.

In the late afternoon game, Team Lin took on Patti Lank who had defeated Erika Brown earlier in the day. This was a very well played game and once again there were many great shots made. Shot of the day and of the tournament so far was Charrissa's hammer shot in the 4th end.

Lank had 3 red stones in the four-foot in front of 1 yellow Lin stone just behind the tee. Patti had shot, Charrissa 2nd but there was a center guard in front of all the stones and it wasn't looking good for Team Lin to score. Already down 3-1, a steal would put them in a hole.

Charrissa elected to throw back 8-foot weight and attempt to curl around the center guard, past 1 red stone in the top 4 just on the left side of center, wick off a second red stone in the 4-foot on the right side of center and then bump back the shot stone. Perfect throw, perfect weight, perfect sweeping equals perfect shot. Team Lank was stunned as Charrissa not only got past the guards and bumped the shot stone, but she moved it far enough to count 2 and tie the game. Just spectacular. Any more weight and the stone wouldn't have curled enough to make the shot. Any less weight and the shot stone wouldn't have moved far enough to count 2.

Unfortunately, although there were more great shots made during the game, Patti gradually built up a multi-point lead and won the game.

So it was definitely a tough day for the team. A few inches in the first game was all the difference between a win and loss. Winning that game could have given them the momentum to upset Lank. Such is the game of curling - sometimes it just sucks.

The team is playing better every game and it's only a matter of time before they get that first W, which is always the hardest one to get (that and the last.) I'll be doing the audiocast of the women's 10am MST (noon EST) draw on Tuesday if you want to listen during your lunch break. I'll also try to post some more pictures tomorrow night if I get some work done before then :)