USA Women Take Sixth Place At FINA World Championships With 10-5 Loss To Australia
7/28/2011 12:00:00 AM
Shanghai, China - July 29 - The USA Women's National Team claimed sixth place at the 2011 FINA World Championships following a 10-5 loss to Austraila in the fifth place match. The loss officially moves the team's ranking in the world from first to sixth, a perch they held for the past two years. The sixth place finish is the team's lowest finish since an eighth place mark at the 1998 World Championships in Perth, Australia. In the match against Australia the Aussies used six straight goals spanning the second and third quarters to turn a one goal deficit into a five goal advantage to spur the victory. Brenda Villa (Commerce, CA/Stanford/Olympic Club) and Annika Dries (Laguna Beach, CA/Stanford/SET) led the USA offense with two goals each.
The United States started off quickly looking to score in the opening minute when Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, CA/USC/Santa Barbara WPF) drew a five meter penalty but Kelly Rulon's (San Diego, CA/UCLA/NYAC) shot was off the mark on the penalty try and it remained scoreless early. Team USA broke through with 4:13 to go in the period as Villa bounced home a shot in transition for a 1-0 lead. Australia answered with a power play goal shortly thereafter and the match was tied at 1-1. The United States came back with a counter attack goal when Dries was able to go with a cross-cage skip to beat the keeper for a 2-1 lead.
That was the score to open the second quarter when Australia started to take over. At the 5:39 mark the ball went inside and the Aussies delivered with a hook shot from two meters to tie the match at 2-2. From there they rattled off a power play goal, a shot clock beating lob shot, and a back hand shot on a counter attack to take a 5-2 lead into halftime. Out of the gates in the third quarter it was more of the same as less than thirty seconds into the period Australia skipped home a shot for a 6-2 lead and then a minute after that skipped in another for a 7-2 lead. The United States halted the run as Dries turned with her left hand and buried a shot for a 7-3 game. A rally seemed in the works when Villa hit for her second shot in transition at the 4:26 mark to make it 7-4 Australia. That idea was snuffed out when the Aussies scored a power play goal and then followed with a counter attack score to take a 9-4 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Early in the fourth the United States looked to try and get back in the match but a power play try went by the boards at the 6:08 mark. Australia tacked on another score with 5:49 remaining to go up 10-4. On the next possession for the United States Courtney Mathewson (Anaheim Hills, CA/UCLA/NYAC) got the red, white, and blue back on the board with a power play goal to get within 10-5. Over the final five minutes the United States was able to kee Austraila scoreless but also failed to generate any offense and came away defeated 10-5. The United States went 2/8 on power plays and 0-1 on penalties while Australia was 3/6 on power plays and did not attempt any penalties. Betsey Armstrong (Ann Arbor, MI/Michigan/NYAC) and Tumua Anae (Newport Beach, CA/USC/SoCal) split time in cage with Armstrong working the first three quarters and Anae the fourth. They combined to record four saves.
Scoring - Scoresheet
USA 5 (2, 0, 2, 1) B. Villa 2, A. Dries 2, C. Mathewson 1
AUS 10 (1, 4, 4, 1)
Saves - USA - B. Armstrong 3, T. Anae 1
6x5 - USA - 2/8 - AUS 3/6
Penalties - USA 0/1 - AUS 0/0
Flash Quotes
"I think we have to take a hard look at how we performed in this tournament. Obviously make some improvements and corrections and I think the hard reality right now is that we are the sixth best team in the world. We certainly have alot of work ahead of us to get back to where we want to be. At the same time our focus all year has been to perform at Pan Ams, that has been our number one goal and we haven't lost that opportunity. That opportunity is not too far away and we need to make these improvements in a short period of time in order to get ready for the biggest tournament of the year." Adam Krikorian, USA Head Coach
"I never felt like we were arrogant going into this. I think we've always had a tremendous amount of respect for everyone and understand that it is extremely competitive now. I think there is alawys something inside that makes you work a litle bit harder and pour a little bit more into it, and now we have this to help us motivate moving forward." Adam Krikorian, USA Head Coach on gaining humility in losing
"Nothing is ever going to be constant, change is always going to be what will happen. For our team our ability to deal with change whether it is momentum during a game (etc), that is the type of thing we'll take away from this tournament. Looking forward we are really excited for the Pan American Games. When you are going into a type of tournament like the Pan American Games to qualify for the ultimate, the Olympic Games, what better than to face adversity and the challenges we faced in this tournament." Annika Dries, USA Center
Women's National Team