CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy \u2014 American hopes of a first Olympic gold medal in women\u2019s curling were dashed on Friday by a Swiss team that simply did not miss.<\/p>\n
Twenty-four hours after skipper Tabitha Peterson had guided her team to a thrilling victory<\/a> over the same opponents to book America\u2019s place in the semifinals, it was Switzerland\u2019s last-stone specialist Alina P\u00e4tz who kept coming up with the big shots.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Trailing 5-4 going into the 10th end, the U.S. needed, if not a miracle on ice, then something we had not seen in this game so far: a Swiss mistake. It did not come, and P\u00e4tz threw another perfect take-out to score two and advance to Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got off to a little bit of a slow start,\u201d U.S. third Cory Thiesse said. \u201c(It) felt like we were kind of chasing a lot the first half of the game, but we picked it up (in) the second half, and were able to put some pressure on them.\u201d<\/p>\n We did not have long to wait to find out who would be joining her there, as Sweden, the top-ranked team in the round-robin phase, closed out a 6-3 victory over Canada.<\/p>\n