By Eric Velazquez<\/p>\n
Team USA Women Thrash Their Way to 7-5 Victory<\/b><\/p>\n
Sydney, Australia\u2014A few bumps, scratches, and torn suits aside, the U.S. women\u2019s water polo team came away squeaky clean winners with a 7-5 victory over Russia and remains the only undefeated team in the Olympic tournament.
\nCouple that with a win by Holland over previously unbeaten home body Australia, and the U.S. now sits at the top of the standings with two games remaining in round robin play. And in these two games, Baker\u2019s Dozen will deal with extremes, playing 2-1 gold favorite Australia tomorrow in a 1:00 p.m. game and facing winless Kazakhstan the following day at 7:30 p.m.
\nBut regardless of the opponent, Team USA plans to attack the game the same way.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to come out and play hard regardless of who it is,\u201d said U.S. playmaker Brenda Villa.
\nHard play was the theme of Monday night\u2019s match, whose physicalities might just have well have been called by Al Michaels and Dennis Miller. By game\u2019s end, blood could be seen on the face of two-meter defender Heather Moody and Heather Petrie was short one suit.\u201cThey play a very physical game,\u201d said veteran Maureen O\u2019Toole. \u201cBut Guy has really made sure that we\u2019re prepared for anything.\u201d
\nThrough two quarters, the Russians looked just as prepared, having played America to a 3-3 tie. The deadlock was broken early on in the third quarter when Coralie Simmons connected on a penalty shot at the 6:25 mark. Russia answered with 4:59 to go, courtesy of an extra-man goal by Natalia Koutouzova.
\nThe U.S. went up for good with 3:32 to go in the third, when O\u2019Toole scored her second game-winner in three days. Fighting in the trenches, O\u2019Toole drew an ejection on Russia\u2019s Elena Smourova, kicked it out to Coralie Simmons at the lefthander\u2019s position, got it back and shot one past Marina Akobia for a 5-4 lead. Before it was over, O\u2019Toole and Coralie Simmons buried their second and third goals of the night, respectively, O\u2019Toole\u2019s coming early in the fourth quarter.
\nRussia\u2019s Ekaterina Anikeeva managed a score with 1:35 left to play to cap off the scoring at 7-5.
\nThe U.S. is now the only unbeaten team in the talented field of six. But according to head coach Guy Baker, it doesn\u2019t matter where the team finishes, so long as it\u2019s in the top four.
\n\u201cIt really doesn\u2019t matter if we finish first or not, so long as we\u2019re in the top four for semifinals,\u201d he said. \u201cAny of the teams that we face in semis will be tough games for us, so we\u2019re prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other games:
\nHolland 5, Australia 4
\nCanada 10, Kazakhstan 3<\/p>\n
Up Next for the U.S.:
\nThe U.S., while having won tough games against Russia and Holland, is not in the clear yet. Tomorrow (Sept. 19), coach Baker and company will face gold-medal favorite Australia in a 1:00 p.m game at Ryde Aquatic Center. The game, which was sold out well in advance, is being billed by many as a preview of the gold medal game. Australia is led by Bridgette Gusterson and goalkeeper Liz Weekes, and is currently 2-1 in round robin play. In the last meeting between these two teams, the U.S. walked off with an 8-7 win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Eric Velazquez Team USA Women Thrash Their Way to 7-5 Victory Sydney, Australia\u2014A few bumps, scratches, and torn suits aside, the U.S. women\u2019s water polo team came away squeaky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[7644,449,105,2125,1659,881,185,2110,7646,7641,6602,480,1756,178,2122,5791,3873,5693,7643,2124,7645,124,147,7505,45,7642,62],"class_list":["post-1800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-al-michaels","tag-america","tag-australia","tag-brenda-villa","tag-bridgette-gusterson","tag-canada","tag-coach","tag-coralie-simmons","tag-dennis-miller","tag-ekaterina-anikeeva","tag-elena-smourova","tag-goalkeeper","tag-guy-baker","tag-head-coach","tag-heather-moody","tag-heather-petrie","tag-kazakhstan","tag-liz-weekes","tag-marina-akobia","tag-maureen-otoole","tag-natalia-koutouzova","tag-netherlands","tag-russia","tag-ryde-aquatic-center","tag-sydney","tag-toole-simmons","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n