The women kicked things off with four pivotal showdowns, headlined by Team USA taking on host nation Russia in what turned out to be Tuesday morning's most thrilling matchup on the ice.
Without further ado, let's take a look at the latest results.
2014 Olympic Curling Results: Session 2 (Women)
Winner Score Loser
Canada 9-3 Sweden
Switzerland 7-6 Denmark
Korea 12-7 Japan
Russia 9-6 USA
Sochi2014.com
Ahead of the clash with Russia, three-time Olympian and current U.S. women's skip Erika Brown stressed the importance of her squad keeping their nerves in check during the big moments throughout the Winter Games, per TeamUSA.org's Amanda Manci:
Our coaching staff and the support we've received have been tremendous to put us in a position to finally get up there and win a medal. It’s important to perform under pressure. Managing the stress and adrenaline of the situation is what will separate teams.
However, during the fourth and fifth ends on Tuesday, it was Russia who were able to manage their adrenaline better than Team USA, scoring four quick points to erase a 3-1 deficit and take a 5-4 lead.
Unsurprisingly, the crowd inside the Ice Cube Curling Center was delirious.
The Americans would respond and level in the sixth but with the crowd behind them, Russia would again take the lead, moving ahead 7-5 in the seventh end.
Team USA would narrow the gap in the eighth end but Russian skip Anna Sidorova would put the game away with two big points in the ninth end to seal the deal for the hosts.
Meanwhile, Japan and Korea were engaged in a spellbinding back-and-forth battle as well.
Japan would go ahead 2-0 in the first end, but wound up watching helplessly as Korea came storming back in the second end, tying the score before moving ahead 4-3 in the fourth. The two squads would swap the lead a couple of more times before Korea took control late, turning a 7-7 deadlock into a 12-7 advantage.
Switzerland, coming off an impressive 7-4 victory over the United States on Day 3, looked strong in the early goings against Denmark. However, the Danes weren't content to roll over one day after falling 7-4 to Russia in their opening game, rallying to score twice in the fourth end to knot the score up at 3-3.
Trailing 6-4 after eight ends, Denmark rallied yet again to level the game at 6-6.
But the Swiss would take advantage of the hammer in the 10th end to steal a 7-6 victory, their second of the round-robin.
Meanwhile, Sweden, who survived Great Britain on Day 3, had no answer against Canada on Tuesday, falling into an early 4-1 that they would never recover from. Canadian skip Jennifer Jones and her teammates were zeroed-in from the outset and secured another impressive win, just one day after trouncing China 9-2.
The 9-3 win in eight sets means Canada improves to 2-0 in round-robin play.
If the first two days of competition are any indication, both Canada and Russia will be awfully tough to beat the rest of the way.
Based on how dominant Jones and the rest of the Canadian women have been, the reigning Olympic silver medalists look poised to take home gold in 2014.
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