Team Muirhead reach quarter-finals as Sloan sits out Olympic year opener

The Scottish team made the quarter-finals in Switzerland in their first outing of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic year, though they were forced to do things the hard way before losing to Team Wang.

Third Anna Sloan was struck down with illness before taking to the ice, with alternate Kelly Schafer called in at the last moment to join Muirhead, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray.

But the disruption didn’t seem to affect the Sochi 2014 bronze medallists, losing just one game en route to the last eight, unable to match their victory in the event from four years ago.

Muirhead was far from concerned with the early exit however, pleased they had a chance to explore other options on the ice with less than a month until their PyeongChang campaign begins.

"Unfortunately Anna was struck down with a sickness bug just before we came to Berne so after some advice the sensible decision was for her to rest up and get better," she said.

"Kelly arrived in Scotland from Canada last week and will be with us right through to the end of the Games so she stepped in this weekend at third.

"She has worked with us throughout the entire year and the team unity between the five of us and the coaches is very strong, which makes for last minute unforeseen circumstances being manageable.

"Betty Wang has a team that recently qualified for the Olympics. Both teams put in a solid performance in a game which could have gone either way, but unfortunately for us Betty had last stone in the extra end which made the difference."