WATER POLO: The Australian women's water polo team battled against a tough Chinese outfit to take a third win in three days with 10-8 score line.
From the outset it was a physical game, with both sides eager for the win. McGhie got the Aussies on the board early after a good steal by Knox.
But it didn’t take China long to strike back and get two goals in quick succession to take the score to 2-1. Buckling and Southern got in another two goals for the Aussies, but again the Chinese were quick to get another past the Aussies taking the score to 3-3 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw McGhie and Knox add two more goals for the Stingers while strong defence only allowed only one goal for China to make it 5-4 at half time.
The girls made their move in the third quarter with goals from Knox, Arancini, Halligan extending the Aussies lead along with solid defence that held off the Chinese to only two goals.
With a score line of 9-6 leading in to the final quarter it was the Aussies to loose. While China made their move quickly to get the early goal, Knox wasted no time in getting in another goal of the game.
Strong defence in the end bought it home for the Stingers with the final score of 10-8.
Assistant Coach Eddie Denis said each time the Stingers play China they expected a tough game.
“We have played them quite often, they know us. Over the last handful of years we’ve been ahead of them so they are always going to fight really hard on us.
“They managed to snag a few goals in the first quarter that were probably a bit easier than we would have hoped for. But three all going at the end of the first quarter was ok.
“Second quarter was a bit of struggle but in the second half we started really well with a nice goal from Bronnie Knox… we went on from there, we got a reasonable lead and were able to hold that.
“We battled the exclusion count again tonight which was difficult but managed to defend most of our extra man which was excellent… we didn’t earn too many but our centre forward plan, our counter attack really took us over the line. So in the end, a good result,” said Denis.
Captain Bron Knox certainly led the team from in front with an impressive four goals. While she was happy with the win she admitted it was tough.
“It was a scrappy game we were going up and down, trying to push their counter. We had a couple of misses on shots.
“We got ahead in the third quarter and maintained that lead. It wasn’t pretty but we got there in the end,” she said.
The Aussies have one last game in the rounds against home country Brazil.
WATER POLO AUSTRALIA
