WATER POLO: Australian Women’s Water Polo team have delivered their second straight win of the FINA World Championships in Budapest, after a solid 8-5 victory over Russia.
The new look Aussie Stingers faced a somewhat unchanged Russian team that claimed bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Olympian Hannah Buckling said she was pleased the Aussies could keep the momentum going for their 2017 World Championships campaign.
“We were three all at the end of the first half and I think with Russia the thing you need to cut down is their counter attack and I think we did really well doing that,” said Buckling.
“We had good patience in our six on six attack and from there our attack came from our defence as well.
“It was a tough slog. It was a really long game but we held in there, we were patient and we didn’t make silly makes to allow us to come away with the win,” she said.
It was a solid team effort from the Aussies Stingers, with the new side coming together well to deliver a team win.
From the outset the game was set up to be a tightly fought contest and with scores locked 3-3 at half time it looked like it would come down to the wire. But it was the second half that the Aussies made their mark, taking an early lead to put them ahead by two at the end of third quarter.
Russia were not going down without a fight, getting the first goal of the final quarter to put them within one goal of the Aussies. But Isobel Bishop stepped up with a lovely back-hand to take back the two goal lead. It was quickly followed up with a goal from Keesja Gofers to give them a three-point lead with three minutes to go.
At that point it was all about defence and the Aussies proved too strong for Russia to claim their second consecutive win.
The stage is now set for the final preliminary round when Australia will face Greece in one of the highly anticipated games of the Tournament, with the new Australian coach, Sakis Kechagias the former coach of Greece. Australia take on Greece 21 July 6:50pm (AEST).
Water Polo Australia
