USA Junior Women Open FINA Junior World Championships With 11-4 Defeat Of Italy
9/11/2011 12:00:00 AM
Trieste, Italy - September 11 - The USA Women's Junior National Team opened up the FINA Junior World Championships in Italy with an 11-4 defeat of the host Italians. Three goals from Brooke Martin and 11 saves by Sami Hill paced the team in the win. They are back in action tomorrow against Indonesia.
Team USA got off to a great start opening up a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and 6-0 by halftime. In the third the Italians broke through with three goals but the United States answered with four scores to go up 10-3 headed to the final period. In the last quarter each team scored just once and Team USA came away winners at 11-4.
Other scorers for the United States included Emily Greenwood, Ashley Grossman, and Kiley Neushul all with two goals while Kelly Mendoza and Colleen O'Donnell added one goal apiece. The United States went 2/7 on power plays while Italy was 2/8. Each team went 1/1 on penalty shots.
"The women were really excited to start the tournament and they played well. They came out ready to go. Defensively, we played as a team which definitely helped us. This was a good start to the tournament, but we have areas we would like to improve upon like 5x6 and 6x5", said USA Head Coach Heather Moody. Attacker Kaley Dodson added, "We set a tone from the beginning of the game that we came ready to compete. We came out hard and played great team ball. As a team we want to continue with the momentum of tonight's game."
Scoring
USA 11 (3, 3, 4, 1) B. Martin 3, E. Greenwood 2, A. Grossman 2, K. Neushul 2, K. Mendoza 1, C. O'Donnell 1
ITA 4 (0, 0, 3, 1)
Saves - USA - S. Hill 11
6x5 - USA 2/7 - ITA - 2/8
Penalties - USA 1/1 - ITA - 1/1
Women's National Team