Goodland (Eau Claire, Wis.) and teammates Stan Vinge (Waunakee, Wis.), Wally Henry (Beaver Dam, Wis.), Jim Wilson (Winnetka, Ill.) and Mark Swandby (Madison, Wis.) suffered its first loss of the tournament last night to Sweden's Claes Roxin, 7-6, in an extra end but bounced back this morning with a 10-4 win over Wales to finish the round robin portion of the tournament.

Sweden (6-0) will play Canada's Al Hackner rink (5-1) in the other semifinal. No teams other than Canada and the U.S. have played in the gold medal game since the event began in 2002. The Americans won gold that year and have settled for silver every year since.

In last night's game, the American men built a 6-2 lead after six ends but let the Swedes crawl back in to steal the victory. The Swedish men scored a deuce in the seventh end and then stole two in the eighth end for force an extra frame. Another steal sealed the game for the Swedes giving them the No. 1 playoff seed. In this morning's game, Goodland's team built a 5-0 lead after steals of three and two to begin the match against the Peter Williams rink. The Wales team scored two in the third and stole singles in the next two ends to pull within 5-4 but the Americans put the game away with a huge seventh end in which they scored four points. A steal of one in the seventh end forced the Wales rink to call it a day.

Pam Oleinik's USA women's team inched closer to earning a semifinal berth with an 11-1 win over New Zealand's Liz Matthews rink this afternoon. Oleinik and teammates Laurie Rahn (Lake Forest, Ill.), JoAnn Matthews (New Berlin, Wis.), Susan Curtis (Rogers, Ark.) and Donna Purkey (Greenwich, Conn.) stole the first five ends of the shortened match, which New Zealand conceded after getting just one point in the sixth end.

The U.S. ladies finish the round robin with games against Switzerland (6-1), Japan (1-6) and Germany (3-4). The top four women's teams advance to Saturday's semifinals. Canada leads the round robin with a perfect 7-0 record. The Swiss ladies lost their first match, 7-5 to Scotland, and fell to second place. The Scottish ladies and the Americans are tied for third with 5-2 records.

Women's scores: USA 11, New Zealand 1; Canada 9, England 6; Finland 10, Germany 2; Scotland 7, Switzerland 5; Sweden 8, Japan 1
Men's scores: USA 10, Wales 4; Sweden 12, Japan 3; Germany 11, Norway 4; Scotland 7, England 3; Finland 6, Switzerland 3; Canada 8, Ireland 0

Men's standings:
Pool A
Sweden 6-0
USA 5-1
Germany 3-3
Japan 3-3
France 2-4
Wales 2-4
Norway 0-6

Pool B
Scotland 6-0
Canada 5-1
Finland 3-3
New Zealand 3-3
England 2-4
Ireland 1-5
Switzerland 1-5

Women's standings:
Canada 7-0
Switzerland 6-1
Scotland 5-2
USA 5-2
Sweden 4-3
England 4-4
Germany 3-4
Finland 3-5
Ireland 1-6
Japan 1-6
New Zealand 1-7

USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust Technologies and Nike as well as by AT&T, General Motors, The Home Depot, and Bank of America through a joint marketing program with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

For more information: Terry Luder, USA Curling, terry.luder@usacurl.org, 608-338-9900 (cell)