Japan advanced to the Beijing Winter Olympic women's curling semifinals Thursday despite losing 8-4 to Switzerland in its last preliminary round game.
Skip Satsuki Fujisawa and team Loco Solare came into the clash ranked third in the 10-team round robin at 5-3, with a win over the first-place Swiss guaranteeing a top-four finish and semifinal berth.
Unable to secure the victory, the 2018 bronze medalist needed other results to go its way to reach the playoffs.
A win for South Korea against Sweden would have eliminated Japan, but an 8-4 loss by the "Garlic Girls" in the 2018 gold-medal game rematch left three teams -- Japan, Great Britain and Canada -- tied behind Switzerland and the second-place Swedes.
A tiebreaker based on each team's accuracy on last-stone draw shots throughout the round robin saw Great Britain finish third and Japan scrape through in fourth ahead of Canada, setting up a semifinal rematch with skip Alina Paetz and Switzerland on Friday. Great Britain will face Sweden in the other semifinal.
Japan coach J.D. Lind said his players initially thought the loss to Switzerland spelled the end of their Olympics.
"They didn't think we still had a chance, they thought we were eliminated," said the Canadian-born Lind, who informed the team of their playoff berth.
"When I told them here in the (media interview area), it was pretty emotional."
Japan took a 2-1 lead over Switzerland with a two-ender in the second, but the 2021 world champion hit back by stealing a point in the fourth, going up 3-2 after Fujisawa missed a takeout attempt with the final shot.
The Swiss then seized the momentum by stealing two in the fifth after Japan missed the mark again on a final takeout attempt. After blanking the sixth, Japan took two in the seventh to pull within one at 5-4.
Following another blank end, Paetz secured three points for Switzerland in the ninth, throwing a superb double takeout with the hammer.
"We did great except for the last end," Fujisawa said. "I did not play my best."
The 30-year-old skip said the team from the Hokkaido city of Kitami would leave everything on the ice in the knockout stage.
"Whether we end up laughing or crying, we only have two games left, so I want to make sure we play them our way," she said.
Related coverage:
Olympics: Japan curlers on verge of semifinals after beating U.S.
Olympics: Japan loses to Great Britain in women's curling
Olympics: Japan curlers fall to South Korea after beating China
