Scotland’s Team Morrison were ahead just once in their meeting with the USA at the LGT World Women’s Curling Champs, but it happened when it mattered most as they stole at the final end to claim a deserved 8-7 victory that has revitalised their campaign.
Having suffered a string of narrow defeats, they made the worst possible start when they conceded a three at the opening end of their meeting with confident opponents who were looking well placed to reach the play-offs after winning four of their previous seven matches. 
However, from that point the Scottish line-up of Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, who had replaced Gina Aitken in the line-up the previous day, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson, hardly put a foot wrong as they applied relentless pressure on their opponents to claw their way back to level-pegging, before producing a brilliantly constructed final end to give American skip Tabitha Petersen little chance with her final stone.
She made a game attempt to pull off an unlikely hit and roll to snatch the win, but it was not quite sufficient to shift the shot stone and the 8-7 win went Scotland’s way.
“We had a bit of a rough first end losing a steal of three, but from there onwards we brought our absolute A game to the table and just made life really difficult for USA,” said Scottish skip Rebecca Morrison.
She admitted that it had been a challenging few days as one cruel defeat followed another, but reckoned that this win had the potential to change their collective mindset as they set their sights on improving on their record of two wins and six losses to climb the table in their last four matches.
“It’s been really difficult for us, having had so many close games and just coming out on the wrong side every time, so to finally come out on the right side gives us a little bit of a bounce in our step going into these last four games,” said Morrison.
“If we’d come out on the wrong side again it would have been tough to get through these last couple of days, but everyone’s doing a great job out there, doing their roles great.
“We just need to keep playing well and keep talking lots about what we’re doing out there.”
The meeting with the USA was their only game of day five. They now face Sweden and New Zealand on the penultimate day of the round-robin stages, before facing Switzerland and Turkiye on the final day, knowing that if they win all four matches they could still edge their way into the play-offs.
The LGT World Women’s Curling Championships is taking place in Sandviken from March 18-26.
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Schedule
Day One – Saturday 18 March
Session 2 – 18.00
Scotland – Germany 12-5
Day Two – Sunday 19 March
Session 3 – 08.00
Scotland – Denmark 7-9
Session 5 – 18.00
Scotland – Japan 8-9
Day Three – Monday 20 March
Session 7 – 13.00
Scotland – Korea 4-6
Session 8 – 18.00
Scotland – Canada 8-9
Day Four – Tuesday 21 March
Session 10 - 13.00
Scotland – Norway 6-9
Session 11 – 18.00
Scotland – Italy 6-7
Day Five – Wednesday 22 March
Session 13 – 13.00
Scotland – USA 8-7
Day Six – Thursday 23 March
Session 15 – 08.00
Scotland – Sweden
Session 16 – 13.00
Scotland – New Zealand
Day Seven – Friday 24 March
Session 18 – 08.00
Scotland – Switzerland
Session 20 – 18.00
Scotland – Turkiye
Day Eight – Saturday 25 March
Qualification Games – 09.00
Semi Finals – 15.00
Day Nine – Sunday 26 March
Bronze Medal Game – 09.00
Gold Medal Game – 14.00
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Gina Aitken
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Jen Dodds (alternate)
Nancy Smith (Team Coach)
Greg Drummond (Coach)
Nigel Holl (Team Leader)
#curling #WWCC2023
Image: WCF/Jeffrey Au
