Muirhead rink still on track despite first loss in round robin
Scotland’s women curlers lost their first match yesterday (Tuesday) but remain on track for the semi finals.
They have made a great start after winning their first five matches at Lillehammer.
The PEAK-based rink of Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff and alternate Mili Smith, started their title run on Saturday with wins over Russia and Denmark.
They then staged a fine comeback from an early deficit to beat Sweden’s defending European and reigning Olympic champions Team Hasselborg.
The Scots looked to be in trouble early on when they conceded a two at the opening end, were forced at the second and then lost another two at the third to find themselves 4-1 down.
However a two at the fourth and a steal at the fifth allowed the Muirhead rink to level the match at the halfway break and they came out to steal again at the sixth.
The momentum had shifted and when Scottish pressure produced further errors at the seventh they stole yet again, scoring at a fourth consecutive end to lead 6-4 before going on to win 8-5.
Monday saw wins over Germany and Estonia to give them a 100 per cent to their championship bid.
Skip Eve Muirhead said was enjoying how all five team members, along with their support crew of Olympic head coach David Murdoch and team coach Kristian Lindstrom are going about their work.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better start,”she said.“We’re getting better every game as well and we’re getting on top of the ice conditions.
“Dave and Kristian are doing a fantastic job with us and after every game we’re looking into the small details. That is helping us be really critical out there to just make the most of every opportunity we have, because at this level you can’t afford to slip up at all and so far I think we’ve done a very good job.”
She was particularly pleased that their dominance allowed them to reshuffle their line-up to give fifth player Mili Smith an opportunity to get on to the ice.
Muirhead also reaffirmed her view that the team is reaping the benefit of the way the leading women on the British Curling programme were formed into a squad of nine in a bid to work out the best combinations.
“You could look at the results all season from the two squad teams and they have been good,” she observed.
Yesterday (Tuesday) saw them face the Czech Republic and tomorrow (Wednesday) they will play Switzerland. Tomorrow (Thursday) the final round robin match is against Turkey/
The semi finals follow, the bronze medal match on Friday and the final on Saturday.