Day 3 at Pan American Water Polo Championship Sees U.S. Women Upset; Canadians Unscathed

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Team USA around Head Coach Kristin Rodriguez during yesterday's Brazil match. Photo Courtesy: USA Water Polo

At the expense of their American hosts, Brazil scored a minor upset on day three of the 2018 UANA Junior Pan American Water Polo Championship in Clearwater, Florida. In early morning action, the Brazilian girls beat Team USA 6-5 despite a hat trick from Miami native Paola Dominguez-Castro.

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Photo Courtesy: UANA

Locked into a tight game at intermission, the visitors scored three unanswered goals in the third period to take a 6-2 lead before Dominguez-Castro, a rising junior at Hialeah High School, rallied her team with goals on back-to-back possessions. Jenna Flynn connected a minute into the fourth period to cut the U.S. deficit to one, but the Brazilian defense stifled the Americans for the rest of the game. At 2-1 in pool play, Brazil trail the Canadians, who are 3-0 after a dominating 29-9 win over Argentina (0-3).

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Paola Dominguez-Castro Photo Courtesy: USA Water Polo

The U.S. (1-1) will face Puerto Rico (1-1) today at 9 a.m. and then match up against Canada (2-0) tomorrow. The loss puts Team USA in some danger of not qualifying for Sunday’s final, as the top two teams from pool play advance, meaning that Head Coach Kristin Rodriguez’s squad will have to dig deep to derail a Canadian offense that has produced 37 goals in two games, including an 8-7 opening day win over Brazil.

The U.S. junior boys fared better than their female counterparts, fashioning a 14-6 win over Puerto Rico behind five goals from Garrett Zahn. Jackson Painter scored his first two goals of the tournament, while Alex Tsotadze continued his torrid scoring streak, notching two more scores to push his team-leading total to ten. Up next at 12:30 p.m. for the Americans is Peru (1-2), a 16-6 loser to Canada yesterday.

The Canadian boys, led by Jeremie Cote’s 13 goals, are 3-0 to lead their group. A win today by the U.S. coupled with a victory by Canada over Puerto Rico (0-3) will set up an all-North American semifinal tomorrow at 1:50pm.

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A happy lot (so far); USA Men’s Youth Water Polo squad. Photo Courtesy: USA Water Polo

Saturday and Sunday’s semifinal and final matches for both the boys and girls will be will be streamed live on Facebook (Facebook.com/USAWP) and YouTube (YouTube.com/USAWP).

After three days of action, Group A standings for the men are:
Brazil (2-0-1)
U.S. (2-0-1)
Argentina (1-2)
Puerto Rico (0-3)

Group B standings are:
Canada (3-0)
Colombia (2-1)
Peru (1-2)
Barbados (0-3)

On the women’s side of the bracket, Canada is on top:
Canada (2-0)
Brazil (2-1)
U.S. (1-1)
Puerto Rico (1-1)
Argentina (0-3)

All results and scoring summaries are available on the USA Water Polo website by clicking here.

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