GUADALAJARA, Mexico, October 27.THE USA Water Polo Women's National Team will play for Gold at the Pan American Games after defeating Brazil 13-1 at the Scotiabank Aquatics Center. A sluggish start in the first half gave way to an offensive outburst in the second, including six unanswered goals in the fourth quarter. Courtney Mathewson (Anaheim Hills, Calif.\/UCLA\/NYAC) led all scorers with five goals while Betsey Armstrong (Ann Arbor, Mich.\/Michigan\/NYAC) went the distance in net turning aside four shots. Team USA will meet Canada in the final on Friday at 5pm cst. Canada and the United States last met in a major championship final when the United States defeated Canada for the Gold Medal at the 2009 FINA World Championships. The Canadians defeated Cuba 15-9 in the semi-finals. <\/p>\n
Team USA got off a to a strong start when Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, Calif.\/USC\/Santa Barbara WPF) drew a five meter penalty 21 seconds into the match but the shot was missed by Kelly Rulon (San Diego, Calif.\/UCLA\/NYAC). The United States eventually cracked the scoring column with a Mathewson score and closed the first period up 3-1. In the second Team USA again failed to convert a five meter penalty and Brenda Villa (Commerce, Calif.\/Stanford\/Olympic Club) cashed in the lone goal of the period for a 4-0 lead at intermission. The second half was a different story as the United States started to get on a roll posting three goals in the third period and then blowing things open in the fourth. After Brazil scored their lone goal of the game at the 5:30 mark of the fourth the United States proceeded to rip off six straight tallies, including two by Mathewson to seal the match. <\/p>\n
Villa and Wenger contributed two goals apiece while Maggie Steffens (Danville, Calif.\/Stanford\/Diablo), Heather Petri (Orinda, Calif.\/California\/NYAC), Annika Dries (Laguna Beach, Calif.\/Stanford\/SET), and Melissa Seidemann (Walnut Creek, Calif.\/Stanford\/Stanford) all scored once. The United States went 3\/6 on power plays and 0\/2 on penalties while Brazil was 0\/4 on power plays and did not draw a penalty. <\/p>\n
Scoring – Scoresheet
\nUSA 13 (3, 1, 3, 6) C. Mathewson 5, B. Villa 2, L. Wenger 2, H. Petri 1, A. Dries 1, M. Seidemann 1, M. Steffens 1
\nBRA 1 (0, 0, 1, 0)<\/p>\n
Saves – USA – B. Armstrong 4
\n6×5 – USA 3\/6 – BRA 0\/4
\nPenalties – USA 0\/2 – BRA 0\/0<\/p>\n
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GUADALAJARA, Mexico, October 27.THE USA Water Polo Women's National Team will play for Gold at the Pan American Games after defeating Brazil 13-1 at the Scotiabank Aquatics Center. A sluggish<\/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":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-polo","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n