"It took everything we had,” U.S. mixed doubles curler Korey Dropkin said following his team’s win over Italy on Monday in the semifinals of the Milan Cortina Games.

Dropkin and teammate Cory Thiesse scored two points in the final end of Monday's game for a comeback victory over Italy to secure a spot in the gold medal match. It will be the first time a U.S. team will receive an Olympic medal in mixed doubles curling, and Thiesse will become the first American woman to win an Olympic curling medal.

Here’s what the two curlers had to say about the win and the history they’ve made.

Dropkin talked about the atmosphere in the arena and how that helped take the team to victory:

“I mean, those are the reigning Olympic champions and the reigning world champs,” he said. “So that's a great team, and it took everything. We were gritty. It was an awesome atmosphere out there. The Italian crowd, the U.S. crowd, and everyone just blasting this venue with cheers. We loved it. We ate it all up. It was wonderful. 

“We just kept making shots, countering their makes. We got a big opportunity in that sixth end and my all-star here capitalized. My gosh, what a day. We're going for gold.”

Thiesse made the game winning shot in the eighth, taking out Italy’s sitting stone and pushing the other far enough to secure the two game-winning points for the Americans:

“I was shaking a little bit,” Thiesse said of her final shot. “But the whole end I knew that Korey was going to put me in position to have a shot to win the game, and so I was just kind of getting ready for that and kind of visualizing that. And when the rock came to stop, I just knew that we had it and Korey gave me a ton of confidence, and I knew we weren't missing it. 

Dropkin initially asked Thiesse to be his curling partner over a dinner at a restaurant in Duluth, MN, called Pickwick in 2022. He reminisced on that night earlier on Monday, and said he’s proud of what the partnership on the ice has built:

“It means the world. It's a dream come true to be in the game tomorrow going for gold,” he said. “It's funny because earlier we had lunch and we kind of had just a two-seat table and I was like, wow, this really kind of feels like at Pickwick back in the day. It was a little bit of a full circle moment. 

“No matter what, I know everyone's proud and I'm very proud of us, and I'm so proud of my partner, my teammate. The first U.S. female to win an Olympic medal right here, and we’re going to go make that thing gold.”

Thiesse finished by reiterating she’s happy to have made it this far, but the job isn’t done yet:

“It's just a dream come true,” she said. “Just to be here and the depth of the field that was here this week. You never know how a week like this is going to go. It's our first Olympics. And just we grinded it out all week, and I'm just so proud of us for being in this gold medal game, and to make it gold tomorrow.”

The U.S. will face off against Sweden in the mixed doubles curling gold medal game on Tuesday at 12:05 p.m. ET.