Stingers Solidify Top Stop

The Australian Women’s Water Polo team has put on a clinical performance against Canada to remain undefeated at the Paris Olympics.

The Stingers were never challenged in their group stage match at the Paris Aquatic Centre, winning 10-7 off the back of hat-tricks to NSWIS athletes Bronte Halligan and Alice Williams.

The win moves them to the top of group A with one game remaining.

“We’re looking pretty good at the moment but we’re taking every day as it comes, trying not to get too ahead of ourselves. We want to finish top of this pool, but we have a lot of building blocks to go,” Alice said.

“We’ve been working very hard on our defence. That’s been a huge focus for us, especially our extra-man defence and I think it’s showing in a lot of these games.

“It also comes down to our goalkeepers. They’re having a phenomenal tournament and that’s our last line of defence. As a team, we’ve really pulled it together to become a unit.”

The first period was the tightest of the match, with scores level after the first seven minutes.

An opening goal to NSWIS athlete Sienna Green set the tone for the match, before a back and forth period of play gave both goalkeepers a lot to do.

Canadian Marilia Mimides levelled the scores with two minutes remaining in the first, the last time her side were on level standings for the rest of the match.

The Stingers took complete control of the match in the second period with three goals shared between Alice, Bronte and Abby Andrews to head into the half-time break 4-2 up.

Five goals to two in the third sealed the win for the Stingers, with Canada’s three goals to Australia’s one in the final period not enough to pull off the comeback.

Joining Bronte, Alice, Sienna and Abby on the scoresheet was Charlize Andrews and Tilly Kearns, while goalkeeper Gabriella Palm set the tone in the first half of the match with some strong saves.

“The way we grinded it out. We got a convincing lead at the start, but they came back a little bit in the second half,” Alice said.

“To keep a lead is quite difficult when someone’s chasing you all the time like that. They changed their defence, and we had to keep adapting.

“We were able to stick to our systems and keep it going until the final whistle.”

Australia’s final group stage match will be against Hungary on Sunday 4 August at 10pm AEST.

Article courtesy of the AOC