The final four teams have been declared for the playoffs of the U.S. Olympic Curling Team Trials in Sioux Falls, SD
Elizabeth Cousins of Nashua, NH defeated Delaney Strouse of Traverse City, MI 9-5 in a Friday morning tiebreaker to advance to the best-of-three women’s final series at the U.S. Olympic Curling Team Trials in Sioux Falls, SD.
Team Cousins, who finished 3-3 in the four-team double round-robin competition behind defending champion Tabitha Peterson (5-1, Chaska, MN) will now battle Peterson in the best-of-three showdown to declare USA’s women’s rep for the Olympic Qualifying Event, hosted next month at Kelowna, B.C. in Canada.
The women’s series gets underway in Sioux Falls with Game 1 at 2:00 p.m. local time.
NBC has provided live multi-sheet coverage all week via their Peacock streaming service, with broadcasts on USA Network.
The tiebreaker saw a stirring Cousins comeback. The squad trailed 4-1 before rattling off a critical three-ender in the fifth end. Team Cousins then stole a huge deuce in the seventh end to pull ahead by a 6-4 count.
On the men’s side, no tiebreakers were needed as four-time defending Trials champion John Shuster (6-0, Duluth, MN) will face off against youthful Daniel Casper (4-2, Chaska, MN) in their best-of-three playoff series beginning Friday at 7:00 p.m.
Defending national men’s fours champion Korey Dropkin of Duluth never got on track, finishing 2-4 during the week while Caden Hebert (Eau Claire, WI) went 0-6.
Dropkin lost the last two Team Trials finals, both held at Omaha, NE in 2022 and 2017.
Shuster, of course, famously won Olympic gold at PyeongChang 2018. His team missed the final at last year’s national championship for the first time in recent memory.
Dropkin himself will compete at the Milano-Cortina Olympics in February in mixed doubles, alongside Team Peterson third Cory Thiesse.
Like the women, the men’s champions will head to Kelowna in December to try and qualify the USA in men’s fours curling at Milano-Cortina 2026.
Strouse finished 3-3 in the women’s double round-robin – which included two losses to Cousins – while Team Allory Johnson of Blaine, MN wound up at 1-5.