California (5-3) will move on to meet Washington's Brady Clark rink (6-2) in the championship final at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Clark's defending champion team took down Maryland's Scott Edie rink, 6-5. Clark didn't have to throw his last stone in the 10th end after Edie came up heavy on his draw to the four-foot to out-count Washington.

It was the first two ends that proved to be the most important for Sieg (Castro Valley, Calif.) and teammates Christina Pastula (Seattle), Brannon Wells (San Jose, Calif.) and Candace Siep (San Jose, Calif.). California stole the first two ends to build a 3-0 lead over Lemke's young Wisconsin team making its first appearance at the U.S. Mixed championship. This was just the second loss of the week for the team, which had previously beat California 11-4 in the round robin.

California lost its first three games of the tournament and was on the respirator as early as Tuesday but ran the table in the round robin and continued its win streak when it counted most - the semifinals.

Wisconsin was forced to one in the third end and California answered with three to increase its lead to 6-1 at the halfway point. Lemke scored the team's lone deuce in the sixth but needed to steal three in the 10th end for the win. Lemke was only able to get two into scoring position with Sieg removing one allowing Wisconsin to steal a point to the end the tournament for the Badgers.

Sieg, 48, is a Manitoba native who played in the 1981 Canadian national championship, The Brier, for the Yukon Territories. This is his first gold-medal game appearance. Clark, along with vice skip and wife Cristin Clark, are trying to win their fifth title in just six years. Lead Bev Walter won titles with the Clarks in 2003, 2005 and 2006. This is Washington second Leon Romanuik's first time playing at the mixed championship.

Washington got off to a solid start scoring an opening-end deuce. Maryland was forced to just one so Clark answered with another deuce to build a 4-1 lead. Maryland inched closer with a deuce of its own in the fourth but the veteran Clark rink held off a late rally by Edie (Middletown, Md.) and teammates Janice Langanke (Middletown, N.J.), Dean Gemmell (Short Hills, N.J.) and Jennifer Kungle (Columbia, Md.). The 2006 runners-up stole a single point in the ninth end to pull within one point and tried to draw in the game-tying steal in the final end but Edie came out wide and sank his stone too deep in the rings to out-count Washington.

Line scores:
*Washington 202 011 000 X 6
Maryland 010 200 011 X 5

*Wisconsin 001 002 001 1 5
California 210 030 010 0 7
*hammer in first end

Finalists:
California (San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club): Lyle Sieg (Castro Valley, Calif.), Christina Pastula (Seattle), Brannon Wells (San Jose, Calif.), Candace Siep (San Jose, Calif.)

Washington (Granite Curling Club): Brady Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.), Cristin Clark (Lynnwood, Wash.), Leon Romaniuk (Kirkland, Wash.), Bev Walter (Seattle)

For more information: Terry Luder, USA Curling, terry.luder@usacurl.org, 715-344-1199