"We're thrilled," Oleinik said. "It was a long week and we didn't really expect this."

This is the third overall bronze for the U.S. as a nation. "We're exhilarated," said Laurie Rahn (Lake Forest, Ill.). "We were ready to win this."

The Scottish ladies got on the board in the second end with three after getting multiple rocks in the house for most of the end. The U.S exchanged hits as they couldn't quite get enough on their double takeout attempts.

But Oleinik (Brookfield, Wis.) and teammates Laurie Rahn (Lake Forest, Ill.), JoAnn Matthews (New Berlin, Wis.), Susan Curtis (Rogers, Ark.) and Donna Purkey (Greenwich, Conn.) made up for it in the third end when Oleinik drew down to a nest of stones in the back side of the 12-foot to nudge a Scottish stone for four points.

"That was huge for us mentally," Oleinik said of the four-ender. "That kept us in the game."

Morris gave the Americans a gift in the fourth end when she tapped a U.S. stone in for second count while trying to draw around it giving the U.S. a steal of two and a 6-3 lead. Playing in the team's third game of the day - an 8 a.m. tiebreaker followed by the 11 a.m. semifinals - the Scottish ladies were a bit sluggish by the time the 3 p.m. game came around.

Morris got the Scots back in the game with a draw for two in the fifth end to close the gap to 6-5. The U.S. got a break in the sixth when Scottish vice skip Jean Robertson hit the U.S. stone too thin and spun out her shooter leaving the Americans an opportunity to set up a deuce. The skips exchanged hits with Morris rolling out with her last stone. Oleinik only needed to touch the house with her last rock to score a deuce. "The whole week has been exceptional," Rahn said. "The Scottish ladies were great to curl against. I think we were certainly more focused after this morning."

The Scots capitalized on a missed takeout by Oleinik to score three in the seventh end to tie the game up heading into the final end.

The U.S. was able to get a rock buried early in the eighth end thanks to a great shot by Curtis to remove the partially buried Scottish shot rock. "If I was going to make any shot this week, that was the one," she said. The U.S. continued to put rocks in the house when the Scottish vice skip wrecked on a guard twice trying to chip out U.S. shot stones. After Rahn drew in a fifth stone, the Scots were able to get one out but rolled a U.S. rock towards the button protecting it fully. Oleinik put up a perfect center guard leaving Morris with not very many options. The Scottish skipper attempted a raise but was wide allowing Team USA to walk away with the bronze medal.

Sweden's Ingrid Meldahl defended her gold medal with an 8-5 win over Canada's Anne Dunn rink. In the men's gold medal game, Keith Prentice's Scotland team finished the competition undefeated after beating Canada's Al Hackner, 6-5, in the final.

Line score - women's bronze:
*SCO 030 020 30 8
USA 004 202 04 12
*hammer in first end

Line score - women's gold:
*CAN 120 020 00 5
SWE 003 101 12 8

Line score - men's gold:
CAN 021 011 00 5
*SCO 300 200 01 6

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).