GANGNEUNG, South Korea _ As the deficit kept growing, Becca Hamilton anticipated an early finish for the U.S. women's curling team in its first game of the Pyeongchang Olympics. "If you would have asked me after the third end whether we were going to be playing until the ninth, I would have told you no," she said.
While Nina Roth's team lost 10-5 to Japan in nine ends Wednesday, it settled down as the afternoon wore on at Gangneung Curling Centre. With a better feel for the ice, Roth, Hamilton, Tabitha Peterson of Eagan and Aileen Geving of Duluth hope to avoid another slow start in Thursday's games against Great Britain and Switzerland.
The Americans fell into a 7-0 hole after only three ends. They didn't score until the fourth, and it appeared they might concede after Japan's lead swelled to 8-1. But a couple of sweet shots by Roth pulled the U.S. within 8-5, giving them the minor satisfaction of staying on the ice a little longer.
Besides, there is no time to mope In the Olympic round robin. The U.S. has eight games yet to play, starting Thursday with matchups against Britain's Eve Muirhead _ the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist _ and Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni.
"It was definitely frustrating in those first few ends," said Roth, who shot 49 percent for the match. "We didn't come out as strong as we hoped. We have to figure out how to capitalize on our opportunities a little better, and a lot of that was getting to know the ice."
Roth said some spots on the ice curled a lot, while others barely curled at all. The scores of all four women's games Wednesday were lopsided; all were decided by at least five points, and all ended early.
On her final throw of the first end, Roth didn't get enough distance, allowing Japan to steal two points. She was off-target with her last stone of the second end, giving Japan two more points, and missed another shot in the third that allowed Japan to score three.
As poorly as things were going, Team Roth was not ready to give up. Sticking it out through nine ends gave it more time to figure out how the ice was playing, which could help it avoid the same fate Thursday.
"We came together and said, 'This is a long game,"' Peterson said. "We have eight ends left. Let's just keep rolling and get a feel for it.
"We could have just played six ends, but since it was our first game, we wanted to get some more feel out there for our next game. We controlled the second half. We were putting our rocks in the right spots. We feel good about it."
