While the Americans were trying desperately to win, they probably also couldn't help but notice that, two sheets over, the other strand of their lifeline to the playoffs was being severed by the Swedes, who had Denmark down by an insurmountable six points after four ends. Along with a victory of their own, the Americans would have also needed a Denmark win to force tiebreakers for the last playoff berths.

The Brits' victory put them at 4-3 and second overall in the final round robin standings, one game behind top dog Canada, 5-2. Sweden stands third, also at 4-3, and Denmark and Norway will play in a tiebreaker for the last semifinal berth. While those teams also have 4-3 records, they had each lost to two of the four tied teams, while Great Britain and Sweden had both beaten two of the four.

The winner of the tiebreaker, at 4 p.m. today, will meet Canada in one semifinal, while Great Britain and Sweden will square off in the other. The semifinals are set for 11 a.m. Friday (all times local, six hours ahead of ET). The losers will play for the bronze medal at 4 p.m. Friday, while the winners will advance to the gold medal game at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The U.S. players, while considered a slight underdog coming into the competition as the fifth-ranked team, certainly had medals on their minds all week, especially after beating heavily-favored Canada in the round robin on Tuesday. But a demoralizing loss to Italy took away the Americans' control of their own destiny, and the loss to Great Britain only sealed the fate.

"I'm a little disappointed for the players only because I know how much they wanted to medal, and how hard they worked for this," said USA Coach Steve Brown (Madison, Wis.). "But I'm also enthusiastic about knowing where we stand with the rest of the world, and knowing that with the correction preparation we could be competing for the gold medal as early as the next world championship. I have no question in my mind about that."

Like so many games this week, the Americans worked themselves into highly opportune situations early in the action, only to fail to finish the job. USA had chances for multiple points in both the second and fifth ends against Great Britain. In both cases, missed shots here and there resulted in no points for USA and steals for the opposition.

Great Britain stole single points in the first and second ends, and again in the fifth and sixth ends. USA's only scoring occurred in the third, with lead Danell Libby (Sprakers, N.Y.) setting up the house with two perfectly drawn shots. Vice skip Jimmy Joseph (New Hartford, N.Y.) made a super hit and roll behind guards with his second shot, and when Great Britain crashed into the guards on a takeout attempt, USA had an opportunity to set up a three.

A missed takeout negated the chance for three, but USA skip Wes Smith (Glenburn, Maine) did wind up with a draw for two with the hammer, which he made nicely. Those turned out to be the last points USA would score in this Paralympic competition, however.

USA had the Brits chasing in the fourth end, until their vice skip, Michael McCreadie, made a perfect runback to take two opposing stones out of count. The U.S. team got a break when Duffy came up short on a draw for two and counted one instead, but he and his teammates still regained a lead they never relinquished. Smith had to draw the eight-foot against three opposing counters in the fifth end just to limit the Brits to one.

The final end featured plenty of rocks in the house, but Great Britain held the best positions, in front of the tee line. Smith tried to chip a couple of the opposing rocks out with his first shot only to slide through the house. USA had little chance of moving enough granite around to score two for the tie with the last rock, and wound up giving up a final stolen point.

"It was a tough loss," said an obviously dismayed Joseph. "I thought we played a smart game, but we just couldn't pull it out. We tried our best."

"There were two big ends we could have had that would have changed the whole game," said Jim Pierce (North Syracuse, N.Y.), who threw the second set of rocks today.

"It's been a great experience," concluded Libby. "We might not have come away with a medal, but we did come out with that much more experience to compete at this level. And we played well. We don't need to leave with our heads down."

Asked if she planned on continuing to compete, with an eye toward the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver, Libby said: "Absolutely. But I hope we get more people involved with disabled curling. We really, really need to get the interest level up and the competitive level up so that when we come here again, we have more experience against other wheelchair teams. Playing against able-bodied teams is fine, but it's just not the same game."

USA finished with a final record of 2-5, same as Italy, but eighth overall since the Italians beat the Americans in their round robin contest.

Also on the U.S. team, but sitting out this game, was Augusto "Goose" Perez (East Syracuse, N.Y.), the newest curler on the squad with only five months of experience. Perez, with a strong athletic background in soccer, immersed himself in the sport very quickly and was at times one of the team's most consistent shooters.

Sweden took control of its game with Denmark by laying five in the fourth end for an 8-2 lead. The Swedes then took care not to allow too many rocks to stay in the rings, avoiding any possibility of a recurrence of the four-ender scored by Switzerland in the final end of the last draw that proved to be their undoing. Sweden stole singles over the last two ends for good measure and a 10-2 final score.

Canada earned the top seed in the playoffs by holding off Italy for a 5-3 win. The Norwegians got into the tiebreakers, and kept the Swiss out, by scoring two in the final end to win their game, 5-4.

Final Round Robin Standings

1) Canada 5-2
2a) Great Britain 4-3
2b) Sweden 4-3
2c) *Denmark 4-3
2d) *Norway 4-3
6) Switzerland 3-4
7a) Italy 2-5
7b) USA 2-5

*denotes tiebreaker to determine fourth semifinalist