Team China strikes again, brings down USA

Nobdy can say any longer that Team China is simply sailing by on luck. After defeating a few of the weaker teams early in the week, China silenced the last few critics today. They opened the day with a huge win against Canada, the pre-tournament favorite to win the championship, and then took on Team USA, another favorite, in the afternoon draw.

Similar to their game against Canada, China was slow out of the gate. The Americans held China to a single point when they had the hammer in the first end. Then the Chinese kept the pressure on to steal a point in the second. McCormick and her USA squad got on the scoreboard with a single in the third.

And then, before McCormick knew what was happening, China went on a rampage. The Chinese team, skipped by Bingyn Wang, scored three in the fourth end. They then stole another two points in the fifth end. They weren't done there, stealing yet another point in the sixth end. They had the Americans down, and they weren't letting up. They delt one more blow in the seventh end by stealing another duce before McCormick threw in the towel. The game ended with a 10-1 final score in favour of China.

Though the shot-making skills of the Chinese team were impressive (team average of 80%), it's the incredible strategy called by Bingyu Wang that is most difficult for opponents to overcome. China is setting up every end to make their opponents shots as difficult as possible, which is wrecked havoc on the American's shooting percentages. American Third Allison Pottinger curled just 55%, while the American Skip Debbie McCormick curled a tournament-low of 50%.

After taking down the two top teams in the tournaments, China is quickly proving to everyone that they are for real this year. They are in sole posession of first place and remain the only undefeated thus far in the tournament. As for Team USA, this is just their second loss of the week, which keeps them in a good position for making the playoffs. Team USA has only a short time to remover from this romping, as they meet Jennifer Jones and Team Canada at 9:00 PM (EST).