New Zealand remain in medal contention at the world curling championships in Basel, Switzerland, but were left lamenting dropping their last game of the day against a US outfit near the bottom of the leaderboard.
The Kiwi quartet beat Switzerland 9-6 earlier in the day to give them their fifth victory of the event, equalling New Zealand's best-ever performance at a world championships.
But they were well beaten 10-4 by the US, who went into the match with only two wins from their eight matches. The game turned in the fifth end, when US skip Heath McCormick had a hit to score four points and give his side a 6-3 lead and they took control from there.
New Zealand are realistic about their chances, however.
Skip Peter de Boer, speaking after their win over Switzerland, said: "We've got some nice momentum going. We ground that out, we were pretty ugly in a couple of ends and very fortunate in the fourth when their stone picked up, which gave us the chance of three.
