WATER POLO: Australia’s women’s water polo team, the Aussie Stingers, have booked their place in the semi-finals of the FINA World Championships with an emphatic 9-5 victory over defending champions Greece.

The Stingers unleashed their trademark physical defence from the opening whistle and never looked back as they built upon a 3-1 first quarter to seal their first world championship semi-final since 2007.

They will now face Russia who eased past Canada 17-9 in their quarter-final.

London 2012 heroes Bronwen Knox, Rowie Webster, Glencora McGhie and Ashleigh Southern all scored twice in the victory, with skipper Knox particularly pleased with her team’s determination in defence.

“I couldn't be happier with our team effort. We had such a great defence and we really worked to the finish,” Knox said.

"We will now play Russia which will be a very tough game. I haven't been in a world championship semi-final since 2007 and lot of these girls haven't been in one so it will be a new experience, but one we are very excited about.”

The Stingers began swiftly with goals to Southern, Webster and McGhie, before extending that margin to 4-2 at half time.

Their lead should have been more, such was Australia’s early domination, but missed opportunities and a failure to convert on the counter afforded Greece an avenue back.

A goal to Greece early in the third had the score at 4-3, but timely replies by Southern and Knox saw Australia extend their advantage to 6-4 at the last break.

Quick fire goals to Knox, Webster and young gun Jayde Appel early in the fourth had Australia on the front foot, and despite a late strike to Greece, the Stingers were able to coast to the line for their fifth win of the campaign.

Coach Greg McFadden was ecstatic with his team’s defensive pressure early in the match and said things were progressing nicely ahead of their semi-final showdown with Russia.

"We started really well and everything we spoke about in defence before the game we achieved, so overall I was very pleased with our defensive performance and our extra man defence was excellent," McFadden said.

"In attack we kind of lost our way in the second quarter and I thought we should have been further ahead at half time, but the girls kept at it in the third term and then in the fourth Bron scored, then Rowie and Jayde and that was the end of the game.

"Now we are in the heart of the competition and the semi-finals will be tough and we’ll reach the real high level of the tournament. We are one of the favourites, but not the favourite. We want the gold medal just like the other teams.”

Australia’s semi-final clash against Russia is at 4.15am (AEST) on Thursday morning, with hosts Spain taking on Hungary in the other semi, having taken out Olympic champions USA 9-6 in the day’s final match. Australia’s men’s team, the Aussie Sharks, will play their quarter-final versus Croatia at 1am (AEST) tomorrow morning.

Water Polo Australia

Singers bound into quarter-finals

Australia's women's water polo team, the Aussie Stingers, have progressed through to the last eight of the FINA World Championships with a convincing 25-2 demolition of Uzbekistan in their quarter-final qualifier on day seven from Barcelona, Spain.

The Stingers' continued their scoring prowess netting 25 goals from 39 attempts to add to their 45 goals totalled against New Zealand, China and South Africa during the group stage. The win sets up a quarter-final showdown against reigning world champions Greece who defeated Italy 13-12 in a match deciding penalty shootout.

A pleased Greg McFadden said the result gave him an ideal opportunity to rotate the bench and fine tune the Stingers’ play ahead of the quarter-finals.

“I am obviously very glad with this big victory and the way we played, even though we can still learn to be more patient to finish our actions. Reaching the quarter-finals was only a first step in this competition. We are very ambitious and we came here to gain at least a medal and why not the gold medal? Now the serious things start,” McFadden said.

Australia began swiftly jumping out to a 6-0 lead at quarter time via three centre forward goals to London Olympians Holly Lincoln-Smith and captain Bronwen Knox and neat conversions from Zoe Arancini and Rowie Webster.

World championship newcomers Hannah Buckling and Isobel Bishop continued the momentum in the second taking the score to 11-1 with Buckling firing home two goals on her way to a game high six. The goals kept flowing in the third with the Stingers adding another five to their total with Lincoln-Smith and Knox again causing havoc on the two metres, before the game was blown open in the fourth with a scintillating nine goal feast. Jayde Appel, Ashleigh Southern and Keesja Gofers all added their names to the scorer’s list with Buckling taking full advantage of Uzbekistan’s tired defence to rattle home her fifth and sixth of the game.

Ashleigh Southern, who powered home two more late in the piece, said it was satisfying to produce a clinical four quarter performance and was excited about the Stingers’ quarter-final against Greece.

“The team really concentrated on going back to the basics and we were trying to execute our counter attack because we had a bit of trouble in that department in the last few days. But we definitely played very well today and we're looking forward to the next game," Southern said.

Australia’s clash against Greece is at 1am AEST early on Tuesday.

Water Polo Australia

Aussie Stingers too good for South Africa

WATER POLO: The Australian women’s water polo team has continued their unbeaten run through the Group stage of the FINA World Championships in Barcelona with a 16-1 demolition of South Africa.

The victory gives the Aussie Stingers their third straight win, a for and against differential of 45-10 and a comfortable win in Group B.

They will now take on Group A cellar dwellers Uzbekistan in a second round elimination game, with a win setting up a must win quarterfinal against defending champions Greece or perennial challengers Italy.

Against the South Africans the Australians led 4-0 at the first break and had seven goals on the board before their opponents struck their solitary blow late in the second quarter.

London Olympic bronze medallists Holly Lincoln-Smith and Rowie Webster fired home three goals each, whilst both goalkeepers Lea Barta and Kelsey Wakefield shared a solid outing in the cage.

Looking ahead to next week’s quarterfinals, centre forward Lincoln-Smith said the three comprehensive victories against New Zealand, China and South Africa, as well as the game against Uzbekistan was not the ideal preparation for a matchup against the might of Italy or Greece.

“It’s going to be hard because, hopefully after we win against Uzbekistan, we have a really hard game in the quarterfinals,” Lincoln-Smith said.

“Against Uzbekistan we’ve got to go out there with the intensity that we’ll need to win our quarterfinal against whoever we come up against so it’s really important to just get everything right in that game.

“There will be some serious training in the next few days.”

The Stingers’ game against Uzbekistan is set for 810pm AEST on Saturday night, whilst the Australian men’s team, the Aussie Sharks, play Hungary tonight at 650pm AEST.

Australian Water Polo