WATER POLO: The Aussie Stingers, Australia’s women’s water polo team, has capped off their FINA World League Super Finals campaign with a 9-8 victory over Canada in their 7th versus 8th classification game in Beijing, China.

The victory ends what has been a difficult week for the Stingers with two penalty shootout defeats, and two losses by a single goal margin. It is also the Stingers second triumph over Canada at the tournament, after two heartbreaking losses to Spain, and nail biting defeats to Italy and Hungary.

Coach Greg McFadden was happy to the end the tournament on a high and believed the girls would only improve ahead of the FINA World Championships in Barcelona in July.

“It was a good way to finish the tournament. I think we improved during the week. We’ve still got a lot of work to do moving forward to Barcelona. We have seven new players in the team and this was all about teaching them to play international water polo,” McFadden said.

Australia started the game spritely, jumping out to a 3-1 lead after initially trailing 1-0. Leading goalscorer Rowie Webster levelled things at 1-1 on extra, before Zoe Arancini and Keesja Gofers – her first goal of the week – converted either side of the quarter break.

On the ensuing attack Sophie Baron La Salle replied for Canada on extra man from the top, only for Isobel Bishop to send in a deft lob from deep right, followed by Monika Eggens’ strike at deep left to make it 4-3 at halftime.

Goals to Webster and Ash Southern early in the third had Australia comfortably ahead 6-3 at 3:47, before Canadian duo Dominique Perrault and Carmen Eggens rattled off three straight goals to level the match at three-quarter time.

The intensity lifted in the fourth with Emma Wright scoring her second to take Canada into the lead for the first time. A quick driving move in front of goal saw the ball shift in the air to Jayde Appel to score from two metres, her first of her Stingers career, and when Arancini and Nicola Zagame scored in quick succession the Stingers juggernaut was back on track at 9-7.

Canada took a timeout and had numerous opportunities to reduce the deficit, but failed on each attempt, until Monika Eggens scored off a five metre foul for 9-8 with less than a minute remaining.

A sense of déjà vu began surfacing as Canada threatened to take the game into penalties shootout, but when Australia found possession with 15 seconds remaining they were able to hold on and record their second win of the week.

Appel, 19, who is one of the seven fresh faces in the team, said it was great to score her first international goal and thanked her teammates for welcoming her into the team.

“It was really exciting and I was very happy. When I first joined the team I was nervous because of so many Olympians but they were welcoming and we are all together now. I don’t feel like the young one,” Appel said.

The Stingers now return to Australia before they head to Europe for the FINA World Championships on July 5. Their first game in Barcelona is against neighbours New Zealand on July 21.

Water Polo Australia