USA Men’s & Women’s Water Polo To Play For Gold At 2012 Pan Pacs

MELBOURNE, Australia, January 13. THE USA Men's and Women's National Teams will play for Gold at the 2012 Pan Pacs following the final day of preliminary competition. The USA Women defeated the Australian "B" team 13-5 while the USA Men battled to a 9-9 draw with the Australian "B" team. The USA Women finish with just one loss while the USA Men were not defeated tallying two draws throughout the competition. Both teams will meet the Australian "A" squad on Saturday for the title.

In the women's match it was the Barbarians as the "B" team is referred to taking an early 1-0 lead. The United States then followed with six straight goals over the rest of the first half to take a five goal lead at halftime, up 6-1. Early in the second half the Barbarians looked to chip away with two straight goals to draw within 6-3 but that was answered by Team USA scoring three of the next four scores to go up 9-4 after three quarters. In the final period the Barbarians found the cage with 5:04 remaining in the match to close to within 9-5 but the United States piled on three more goals, including the third of the day from Courtney Mathewson (Anaheim Hills, CA/UCLA/NYAC) to take the match 12-5.

Eight different scorers found the net for the United States with Kelly Rulon (San Diego, CA/UCLA/NYAC) and Brenda Villa (Commerce, CA/Stanford/Olympic Club) added two goals each. Tumua Anae (Newport Beach, CA/USC/SOCAL) went the whole way in net. The USA Women will meet Australia for the title, they lost earlier this week to the Aussies by a final score of 8-7.

As for the USA Men it was a tightly contested match throughout. Both teams were even at 2-2 after the first quarter and 4-4 at halftime. In the third quarter the Barbarians surged ahead outscoring the United States 3-1 to go up 7-5 headed to the fourth. Team USA was able to rally in the final period posting four goals to just two from the Barbarians to force the draw at 9-9. Ryan Bailey (Long Beach, CA/UC-Irvine/Newport WPF) led the USA offense with three goals while Chay Lapin (Long Beach, CA/UCLA/Shore) played all four quarters in the cage.

Scoring – Women – Scoresheet
USA 12 (2, 4, 3, 3) C. Mathewson 3, B. Villa 2, K. Rulon 2, J. Moss 1, T. Gandy 1, E. Windes 1, L. Silver 1, M. Seidemann 1
AUS "B" 5 (1, 0, 3, 1)

Scoring – Men – Scoresheet Not Available
USA 9 (2, 2, 1, 4) R. Bailey 3, J. Wigo 2, J. Powers 2, P. Varellas 1, B. Alexander 1
AUS "B" 9 (2, 2, 3, 2)

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