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2050 Tilden Avenue, New Hartford, NY 13413 | Phone 315 797-3114 | Toll-Free 1 888 578-8807
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Team USA, which is comprised entirely of Sitrin STARS athletes, got off on the right foot at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games Saturday afternoon defeating Korea in the opening action of the round robin wheelchair curling competition at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.
Augusto Perez and the Americans ruined Korea's debut at the Paralympic Games with the 9-6 win in the team's quest to earn the U.S. its first medal in wheelchair curling at this level.
Perez (East Syracuse, N.Y.), Patrick McDonald (Orangevale, Calif.), James Pierce (North Syracuse, N.Y.) and Jacqui Kapinowski (Point Pleasant, N.J.) shrugged off a slow start, showing the team's ability to battle back and win.
"We had a slow start, but once we started to get comfortable with the ice, things started going our way," Pierce said. "We battled back. Persistence is one thing that we're known for."
Pierce shot a team high 81 percent in the win as he helped save several ends for Team USA.
"It's not an individual sport, it's a team event and some days you're the one that plays strong," Pierce said.
The U.S. got on the scoreboard first, but it was after Korea pressured Perez into drawing for a single to avoid the steal. The Americans spent the second end chasing a stone on the side of the house that Korean lead Misuk Kang placed in the rings. McDonald finally got a piece of it, but Korea already had a second stone in the house to set up the deuce. Perez couldn't convert the takeout, giving Korea a chance to score a big end, but the Americans caught a break and ended up stealing the end when Kim missed his final takeout.
The Americans had the third end set up much more to their liking until vice skip Myungjin Kim saved the end for Korea by making a takeout and then rolling his shooter behind the center guard to swing the momentum in favor of Korea as they were able to draw for three.
A missed takeout in the fourth by Myungjin Kim allowed the U.S. to set up the deuce. Korea was able to draw for three again in the fifth but the U.S. answered right away.
"We cannot be giving up those threes, but we proved that we can come back and win," Perez said.
Kapinowski, who only started curling in 2008, helped set up a good end for the Americans in the sixth as she made a soft tap on her own stone and rolled behind the center guard to put two in scoring position. After Korea made a double takeout, Pierce snuck a stone behind the corner guard to put two U.S. rocks across the house from each other leading to a draw for two by Perez to tie the game.
Pierce then made a perfect raise in the seventh end to set up a steal as Perez used his final brick to make a takeout and leave only U.S. rocks in the house. Korea was then forced to draw came up short of the rings, giving the U.S. two and an 8-6 lead going into the final end.
In the eighth, Korea got rocks in the house, but Pierce made another nice hit and roll to keep the U.S. in control of the end en route to the win.
"It's always one little step forward. We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves and pique at the wrong time. It was important to start the week with a win," Perez said.
The Americans return to action at six p.m. to take on Canada, which defeated Great Britain, 9-2.
The win was bittersweet for USA Head Coach Steve Brown (Madison, Wis.) who has coached at just about every level of curling. As Coach Brown earned his first win here, simultaneously his daughter was hoisting the women's national championship trophy in Kalamazoo to head to Women's Worlds March 21-28 in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
Seventy percent of the week's tickets for the wheelchair competition so far have been sold. Saturday’s attendance was 2,459.
In addition to a two-hour highlights program on NBC Sports April 10 (3-5 p.m. ET), Universal Sports will broadcast a nightly two-hour show for nine straight nights dedicated to the daily competition of the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games starting on Monday, March 15 at 6 p.m. ET (re-air at 11 p.m. ET) and continuing nightly through Tuesday, March 23.
Additionally, UniversalSports.com will offer on-demand re-airs of the Universal Sports television coverage, plus full-length event "rewinds."
The official site of the U.S. Paralympic Team, www.usparalympics.org, will also offer daily video and news highlights of the competition from Vancouver. Also check out www.paralympic.tv for on demand feeds.
USA line score:
Korea 003 030 00 6
*USA 110 202 21 9
*last stone in first end
Game scores: USA 9, Korea 6; Canada 9, Great Britain 2; Germany 10, Norway 6;
Standings:
USA 1-0
Canada 1-0
Germany 1-0
Switzerland 1-0
Italy 0-0
Japan 0-0
Great Britain 0-1
Korea 0-1
Norway 0-1
Sweden 0-1
Live scoring from the event will also be http://www.vancouver2010.com/paralympic-games/wheelchair-curling/schedule-and-results/ or visit www.usacurl.org.
