So much for Team USA going undefeated at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Team USA’s mixed doubles curling duo of Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys fell to Italy in their second round-robin match by a score of 8-4 on Wednesday.
This was the first ever Olympics mixed doubles match for Italy, which was not among the eight competing countries at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. The tandem of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner pulled off the victory and start round-robin play with a 1-0 record.
The U.S. took a 1-0 lead in the first end before Italy poured on four points in the second end. Each side got a point in the ensuing ends to make it a 5-2 contest.
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Persinger and Plys secured a point in the fifth end to cut their deficit to two. In the sixth end, a hog line violation from Constantini allowed the U.S. to tally another point and bring the score to 5-4. Italy squandered a chance to increase its lead even more in the seventh end but only came away with one point.
The U.S. had a chance to tie the match at 6-6 in the eighth end, but Persinger’s final toss went wide and gave Italy a 8-4 final.
Persinger and Plys won their first match 6-5 over Australia on Wednesday to kick off the tournament.
Next up for Team USA is a match against Norway on Thursday at 1:05 a.m. ET. Norway, which earned bronze in 2018, lost its first match of the 2022 Games to the Czech Republic by a score of 7-6.
