USA Women and China End In 10-10 Draw
8/10/2010 12:00:00 AM
Sydney, Australia – August 10 – The USA Women’s Senior National Team and China battled to a 10-10 draw on the third day of the Women’s Water Polo 10th Anniversary Tournament. Anne Belden (Newport Beach, CA/Bruin) scored three goals including the tying score late in the fourth quarter to help lead the offensive attack. Emily Feher (Santa Ana, CA/NYAC) posted eight saves in the cage. Team USA is back in action on Wednesday against Greece.
Team USA got things started off early as they went right into two meters and Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, CA/Santa Barbara) to open the scoring up 1-0. China answered with two straight goals before Belden converted on a power play following a Craig drawn exclusion for a 2-2 match. China then ripped off two straight goals to go up 4-2 before Maggie Steffens (Danville, CA/Diablo) found the cage late in the quarter for a 4-3 match in favor of China.
Trailing by one to start the second quarter Team USA responded with a flurry of goals. The first came from Belden to tie the match at 4-4, then the former UCLA Bruin drew a five meter penalty which was converted by Kelly Rulon (Point Loma, CA/NYAC) for a 5-4 lead. The United States went up 6-4 and then 7-4 as Annika Dries (Laguna Beach, CA/SET) worked inside for a score and the three goal advantage. China remained resilient scoring twice to close out the period and pull into intermission trailing by just one at 7-6.
In the third quarter China came all the way back with a goal early in the frame to tie the match at 7-7. China then added on two more scores for a two goal advantage at 9-7. That was short lived when Melissa Seidemann (Walnut Creek, CA/Stanford) scored on a deflected shot and Rulon closed the period with a score with just :14 on the clock for a tie game at 9-9.
China struck first in the fourth quarter converting a five meter penalty to retake the lead at 10-9. With things looking somewhat bleak, Belden answered with the equalizer late in the period to tie the match at 10-10. China drew a power play with less than 30 seconds to play but their attempt was snuffed out by the USA defense. The last chance on offense for Team USA resulted in an offensive foul and that sealed the match.
The United States went 3-4 on power plays while China was just 3/11. Both teams converted their penalty shot attempts.
summary below courtesy of australianwaterpolo.com.au
Quarters: 3-4, 4-2, 2-3, 1-1
Referees: Nick HODGERS (AUS), Nikolaos VASILEIOU (GRE)
Extra Man: USA: ¾ plus 1/1 on penalty; CHN: 3/11 plus 1/1 on penalty
TEAMS:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Elizabeth ARMSTRONG, Emily FEHER, Anne BELDEN (3), Kiley NEUSHUL, Brenda VILLA (C), Margaret STEFFENS (1), Juliet MOSS, Courtney MATHEWSON, Lauren SILVER, Elsie WINDES, Kelly RULON (2), Annika DRIES (1), Kameryn CRAIG (2), Melissa SEIDEMANN (1). Head Coach: Adam KRIKORIAN.
CHINA: YANG Jun, TENG Fei (2), LIU Ping (1), SUN Yujun, HE Jin, SUN Yating, SONG Donglun (1), GAO Ao (1), WANG Yi (1), MA Huanhuan (2), SUN Huizi, ZHANG Lei (2), CHEN Yuan. Head Coach: Juan JANE GIRALT.
MATCH REPORT:
By Keiron Costello and Christina Zhou, Infostrada Sports
China and the USA played out an exciting 10-10 draw in a seesawing match on day three of the Auspole-Longmont 10th Anniversary six-nation women's water polo tournament. Despite conceding the first goal, the newly arrived Chinese team showed few signs of jet-lag to dominate the Americans for most of the first quarter.
The enterprising attack and smart shooting of the Chinese saw them score four early goals, while their well-drilled defence frustrated the USA attack. A late goal to American Margaret Steffens meant China only had a slim 4-3 lead to show for its early dominance. The USA came out a changed team in the second quarter - a much-improved attacking effort saw it score the first four goals of the quarter and take a commanding 7-4 lead.
However, the Chinese rallied late in the half with two goals inside a minute to Zhang Lei, who did an excellent lob under heavy pressure. Despite going into halftime down 7-6, China dominated the early exchanges of the second half, scoring the first three goals, including a double to Teng Fei. The American defence found itself under serious pressure throughout the quarter as it suffered five exclusions.
Yet its defence held strong and China was left ruing its inability to convert its extra-player advantages as the Americans scored two late goals to even the score line heading into the final quarter. The fourth quarter began with Ma Huanhuan putting China in the lead from a penalty shot.
China had opportunities to increase the lead from four USA exclusions throughout the quarter, but again the USA defence was impressive as it shut down several Chinese opportunities. With a little more than a minute left in the game, American Anne Belden found the back of the net for the third time in the match to level the scores. Despite a late Chinese shot rebounding off the crossbar, neither team was able to break the stalemate in the last minute as the match ended in a draw.
USA head coach Adam Krikorian was unhappy with his team's performance in the lead up to the World Cup in New Zealand next week. "Mentally, I don't think we were as ready as we could be. I take responsibility for this, but we'll be much better next week," he said. "We'll have to play a lot better to be successful in Christchurch."
Krikorian singled out hat-trick scorer Anne Belden as the star performer for the USA team. "She's had a great tour and played well tonight," he said. "She was probably the one bright star for us."
Chinese coach Juan Jane Giralt was happy with the effort of his players considering they arrived in Australia just six hours before the game today. "It's not an easy situation for them," he said. "Sometimes the players were sleeping in the water." Sun Huizi, the Chinese captain, was left ruing missed chances as China failed to convert any of its 11 extra-player advantages. "After the jet lag, we were all a bit tired," she said. "As a result, we didn't get all our tactics right."
Women's National Team