OMAHA, Neb. — At the 2017 World Women’s Curling Championship last March, Team Roth placed fifth to help secure Team USA its quota spot at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
Roth and her team of Tabitha Peterson, Aileen Geving and Becca Hamilton were determined to prove themselves as the best team in the nation and earn the right to fill that spot by winning the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Curling.
Team Roth did exactly that, defeating Team Jamie Sinclair in the best-of-three playoffs, 2-1, to punch its ticket to the Games, where all four women will make their Olympic debut. They are some of the first athletes to join the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team, behind only biathletes Lowell Bailey and Susan Dunklee, who qualified in February.
Teams Roth and Sinclair faced each other five times at Olympic trials prior to what would be the final match, with Team Sinclair owning the 3-2 edge. In Saturday’s deciding match, Team Roth earned a 7-6 victory.
Team Roth advanced into the playoff round with a 4-2 record in the round robin, which matched the record of Team Sinclair. Team Sinclair advanced as the No. 1 seed, however, based on the teams’ head-to-head records which, at the time, was 2-1 in favor of Sinclair. The two teams had also faced off for the national title in February, where Sinclair also emerged victorious.
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