Women's playoff field set at curling nationals

The women's playoff field is set as the round robin came to a close Wednesday night at the 2012 USA Curling National Championships at IceWorks Skating Complex.

Allison Pottinger (8-1) is the No. 1 playoff seed and will play No. 2 seed Cassie Potter (7-2) in the Page Playoff 1-2 game. Alex Carlson (6-3) and Aileen Sormunen (6-3) will meet in the Page Playoff 3-4 match. Both games are set for 8 p.m. Thursday. The winner of the 1-2 game advances to Saturday's gold-medal match, while the losing side plays the winner of the Page 3-4 game in the semifinal, which will determine the other finalist.

Live webstreaming courtesy of USA Curling's involvement with the 12th End Sports Network and the U.S. Olympic Committee can be found at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/usa-curling. Scores, standings, game schedule and athlete biographies can be found online at www.usacurl.org/curlingrocks.

This is the first opportunity for teams to qualify for the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, which will take place Nov. 11-16, 2013, in Fargo, N.D. The top two men's and women's team from the 2012 Nationals earn direct berths. In addition, the winning teams from the 2012 Nationals earn the privilege to represent the U.S. at the 2012 World Championships. The 2012 Ford World Women's Championship will take place March 17-25 in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. The 2012 World Men's Championship will be staged in Basel, Switzerland, March 31-April 8.

Playoff teams:

MEN #1 seed: Team McCormick: Heath McCormick (Sarnia, Ontario), Bill Stopera (Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.), Martin Sather (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.), Dean Gemmell (Short Hills, N.J.), Matt Hames (Buffalo, N.Y.)

MEN #2 seed: Team Fenson: Pete Fenson (Bemidji, Minn.), Shawn Rojeski (Chisholm, Minn.), Joe Polo (Duluth, Minn.), Ryan Brunt (Bemidji, Minn.)

WOMEN #1 seed: Team Pottinger: Allison Pottinger (Eden Prairie, Minn.), Nicole Joraanstad (Verona, Wis.), Natalie Nicholson (Bemidji, Minn.), Tabitha Peterson (Eagan, Minn.)

WOMEN #2 seed: Team Potter: Cassie Potter (St. Paul, Minn.), Jamie Haskell (White Bear Lake, Minn.), Jackie Lemke (Medford, Wis.), Stephanie Sambor (Minot, N.D.)

WOMEN #3 seed: Team Carlson: Alexandra Carlson (Wayzata, Minn.), Monica Walker (Brighton, Mass.), Kendall Moulton (Minneapolis), Jordan Moulton (Minneapolis)

WOMEN #4 seed: Team Sormunen: Aileen Sormunen (Duluth, Minn.), Courtney George (St. Paul, Minn.), Amanda McLean (Duluth, Minn.), Miranda Solem (Cohasset, Minn.), Coach Tom George (Duluth, Minn.)