Japan hands Jones her first ever Olympic loss

BEIJING — Any lingering disappointment from her first Olympic loss was quickly erased when Jennifer Jones walked through the interview area at the Ice Cube on Friday.

She passed by Chinami Yoshida as the Japanese vice was telling a reporter how excited she was that Jones was representing Canada because it's her "favourite team."

The two players embraced and shared a hug. "You are my idol," Yoshida told her.

Win or lose, there's a certain mystique that Jones brings to a room, even after an 8-5 round-robin defeat. That presence extends to the ice as well and could be a factor against a less-experienced opponent deeper in the competition.

On this day, Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa outplayed the Canadian side by putting the pressure on early and not letting up. She was perfect through five ends and any second-half mistakes were minimal.

"They played outstanding," Jones said. "They didn't give us a sniff. We'd have maybe a slight opportunity and then they'd make a great shot."

Jones, who ran the table at the 2014 Sochi Games, fell to 1-1. Her rink made a few sweeping errors in the early going and never really settled into a rhythm.

"It was going to be really hard to go through undefeated," Jones said. "It's just such a deep field. We knew that was going to happen."

Switzerland and the United States posted victories to remain unbeaten at 3-0. Silvana Tirinzoni beat Russia's Alina Kovaleva 8-7 and Tabitha Peterson defeated China's Yu Han 8-4.

Canada fell into a five-way tie at 1-1. South Korea's EunJung Kim outscored Great Britain's Eve Muirhead 9-7 in the other women's game.

Fujisawa stole single points in three of the first five ends and notched a deuce when she had hammer in the third.

Canada cut into the lead when