AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Seattle's OneWorld will race New York's Stars & Stripes, and Prada of Italy will take on Sweden's Victory Challenge in quarterfinal repechages starting Saturday at the America's Cup off Auckland.

OneWorld was expected to avoid its American rival, which has made startling gains since it put forward its salvaged yacht, USA-77. Instead, it elected to promote all-American and all-European repechages.

The best-of-seven race "second-chance'' repechages combine the losers of the top four quarterfinals, OneWorld and Prada, and the winners of the bottom four matches, Victory and Stars & Stripes. OneWorld, as the highest-ranked team, had the right to choose its opponent.

The decision, eventually made by OneWorld's crew, had to be made within 24 hours of the conclusion of the quarterfinals. The announcement came three hours before the deadline Tuesday.

"We put it to the team and at the end of the day we decided this was the best decision for us,'' OneWorld chief executive Gary Wright said.

Spokesman Bob Ratliffe said arguments could be formed for racing any prospective opponent. He declined to outline the rationale for its decision but it appears OneWorld has decided to hit Stars & Stripes before it becomes too strong.

The New York team headed by Cup legend Dennis Conner won only six of its 16 races in the first two rounds of the challenger series, qualifying for the quarterfinals in seventh place.

Conner's team was upset that it was selected by OneWorld as its opponent in the next round of the America's Cup challenger series, meaning only one of the two U.S. boats can advance.

"Our team has taken it as a chance to get a little mad,'' Stars & Stripes skipper Ken Read said. "These guys think we're the worst of the group so let's go out there and prove them wrong. Quite frankly we think we have the ability to do that.''

When it swapped its first race yacht, USA-66, for its second USA-77, which sank and was salvaged off Long Beach, Calif., in mid-July it made sudden and impressive games.

Stars & Stripes beat Britain's GBR Challenge 4-1 in its quarterfinal series.

OneWorld's decision means there will now be a maximum of two American teams in the semifinals.

Oracle of San Francisco has already made the semifinals alongside top qualifier Alinghi of Switzerland.