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USA men advance to playoffs at 2008 World Seniors
By Terry Kolesar // USA Curling // March 14, 2008
(STEVENS POINT, Wis.) - The USA men led by David Russell advanced to the playoffs and earned the No. 1 seed after finishing out the round robin with an 11-2 win over Ireland Thursday night at the 2008 World Senior Championships in Vierumaki, Finland.
The U.S. finished the round robin with a 7-1 record along with Finland's Mauno Nummila and Scotland's Adam Graeme teams. Each team had lost at least one game to the other so it came down to the lowest draw shot distance score, which awarded the U.S. the No. 1 seed and forces Finland and Scotland to play a tiebreaker game tonight for the final spot.
Russell (La Crosse, Wis.) and teammates Bill Rhyme (Green Bay, Wis.), Mark Swandby (Madison, Wis.), Dave Carlson (Portage, Wis.) and Mike Fraboni (McFarland, Wis.) will face Sweden's Per Lindeman in Saturday's 9 a.m. semifinals. Canada's Pat Ryan will face the winner of the tiebreaker game between Scotland and Finland in the other semifinal.
In tonight's match, the Americans scored nine unanswered points before Ireland's Tony Tierney rink got on the scoreboard with a single in the fifth end. After the Irishmen stole one more point, the U.S. put the game away with a deuce in the seventh end.
Live scoring can be found at http://curling.fi/en/competitions/leagues/2687.
Since the World Senior Championships were created in 2002, the U.S. men have won four silver medals (2006, 2005, 2004, 2003) and one gold medal (2002) while the women have won three bronze (2007, 2004, 2002).
Line scores:
USA* 222 300 2x 11
Ireland 000 011 0x 2
*last rock in first end
Standings:
Men - Blue group:
*USA 7-1
**Finland 7-1
**Scotland 7-1
Ireland 5-3
England 4-4
New Zealand 3-5
Italy 2-6
Iceland 1-7
Norway 0-8
*semifinalist
**to play tiebreaker for final semifinal berth
Men - Red group
*Canada 8-0
*Sweden 7-1
Germany 6-2
Switzerland 5-3
Japan 4-4
Wales 3-5
Russia 2-6
Estonia 1-7
Denmark 0-8
*semifinalist
Women:
Canada 6-2
Finland 6-2
Scotland 5-3
Sweden 5-3
USA 5-3
Switzerland 5-3
Ireland 4-4
Japan 3-5
England 1-7
New Zealand 0-8
USA Curling is sponsored by AIT Worldwide Logistics, AmerAust Technologies and Nike.
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