Press Coverage

Team USA will leave the 2013 World Senior Championships without any medals as the American ladies just missed out on the playoffs in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Margie Smith (St. Paul, Minn.) and teammates Norma O'Leary (Silver Bay, Minn.), Debbie Dexter (St. Paul, Minn.), Shelly Kosal (Edgerton, Wis.), and Lucy DeVore (Superior, Wis.) lost to Cathy King's Canadian team, 6-4, this afternoon at the Grant Harvey Centre, to be eliminated from the race to the playoffs.

"We did push them hard; not quite hard enough, but if we would have played like that all week, we would have been both teams 5-and-0 going into the day. And we didn't," Smith said after the loss. "We knew we could give them a run. Top to bottom, they shoot really well. But we did, too. It was a good game."

Canada, which hasn't lost a game at this event since 2008, moves on to the semifinals from Group A. One tiebreaker game will be played between Japan and Austria tonight to determine the other semifinalist from that group. Scotland (6-0) and Sweden (5-1) have moved on from Group B. Canada will play Sweden in one semifinal while Scotland will face the winner of the tiebreaker match between Austria and Japan. The semifinals are scheduled for 8 a.m. Saturday followed by the medal games a 2 p.m. for both the women and men (all times local, ADT).

"They made us play, and they played well," said King. "It wasn't our best game, and the ice started out a little differently today. It was a little heavier and then it got lightning fast. It went from the heaviest we've played to the fastest, so that threw us a little bit for draw weight. But we figured it out. I think we needed a game like that to sharpen us up a bit. Hopefully we'll figure out the draw weight a little quicker (tomorrow)."

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.

After being eliminated from playoff contention with a loss last night, Gert Messing and the American men bounced back this afternoon with a win over England at the 2013 World Senior Championships in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Playing now for pride at the Grant Harvey Centre, Messing (Hartsdale, N.Y.) and teammates Dennis Mellerup (Hoboken, N.J.), Bill Nickle (Long Valley, N.J.), Bill Peskoff (Glen Gardner, N.J.) and alternate/coach Paul Pustovar (Hibbing, Minn.) improved to 3-4 with an 8-3 victory over Michael Sutherland's group from England.

"We just wanted to keep our game a little simpler this time; throw more rocks in the house and make the other team chase, and I think that worked for us," said Mellerup, 53, who works as a senior information technology analyst with Nomura Securities. "We still wanted to win; we want a winning record, the best record possible, because we're representing the United States and we're very proud to do it. The stronger the record, the better for everybody. We have our peers watching us, the country is watching us, so we want to win - win as much as possible."

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.

Gert Messing and the American men got back on track at the 2013 World Senior Championships in Fredericton, New Brunswick, with an overtime win over Denmark last night at the Grant Harvey Centre.

Team USA fell behind the Danish team skipped by Bent Kristoffersen early in the game but battled back to steal two points to force an extra end. When Kristoffersen missed an angle raise takeout with his final shot of the ninth, the Americans picked up their second win.

"That was an uphill battle all the way. It seems like we've had that trend this week and I'm happy to finally pull off a comeback," Messing said after the win. "It always feels good to win. We still need a couple more wins to feel better about it. It's difficult. These guys are all tough and they're playing tough as nails, they're hardly missing any shots and they make all the good shots."

To read the complete press release, click on the PDF below.