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Official 2010 Olympic curling pin

Wright advances to 1-2 playoff match
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2009

Wright headed to 1-2 playoff game at 2010 U.S. Olympic Team Trials

(BROOMFIELD, Colo.) - Three-time national champion Amy Wright has led her team to the page playoff 1-2 game after defeating Patti Lank, 9-5, in a tiebreaker game to determine seeding Thursday afternoon at the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the Broomfield Event Center.

Wright (Duluth, Minn.) and teammates 2006 Olympian Courtney George (Duluth), Jordan Moulton (Highland Park, Ill.) and Patti Luke (Duluth) will now face No. 1 seed Debbie McCormick in the playoffs at 8 tonight. The winner of the 1-2 game between the tops seeds advances to Saturday's final while the losing team plays the winner of the game between No. 3 ranked Lank and No. 4 seed Erika Brown (Oakville, Ontario/Madison, Wis.) in tomorrow night's semifinal.

"Today we just focused a little more on making precise shots," Moulton said. "Our goal was to be in the one-two game. That's what we've been looking forward to." Moulton, who only began curling seven years ago has already been to a world junior championship and is now competing in her second women's national championship. "My parents dragged me into curling in 2002 so becoming an Olympian started out as just a glimmer in my eye," Moulton said. "It's exciting to actually feel like this could be happening."

Wright's team jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after capitalizing on a steal of two points in the second end. Lank, the two-time world silver medalist, put a deuce on the scoreboard in the third end but Wright would reciprocate to pull ahead 6-2. Lank and teammates Caitlin Maroldo (Rochester, N.Y.), Ann Swisshelm (Chicago) and Chrissy Haase (Schenectady, N.Y.) made a takeout for two points in the sixth end only to have Wright draw in for yet another deuce in the seventh. The game ended after the ninth end when Wright made a draw around a center guard to the button to out-count Lank's stone in the four-foot.

A similar game to determine seeding takes place at 4 p.m. today between John Shuster and Todd Birr. Tyler George is the men's top seed while Craig Brown is seeded fourth.

The women's championship final is set for 10 a.m. Saturday followed by the men's game at 3 p.m.

Live scoring from the event is available at www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks in the scoreboard.

Universal Sports will air 12 hours live from the 2010 Olympic Team Trials, including the semifinals and championship finals. Live webstreaming also will be on www.universalsports.com.

Line score:
*Wright    220 020 201 x        9
Lank        002 002 010 x        5

STANDINGS:
Women:
*McCormick    8-1
*Wright    8-2
*Lank        7-3
*Brown    6-3
Potter        4-5
O'Leary    4-5
Sormunen    5-4
Clark        2-7
Gervais    2-7
Lin        0-9
*clinched playoff berth

USA Curling is sponsored by Kodiak Technology Group, AIT Worldwide Logistics and Nike.

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For more information: Terry Kolesar, USA Curling, 715-344-1199, Ext. 202, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 
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