Bounceback Win

The USA Women's Junior National Team wasted no time returning to the winning column as they ran through Germany 15-6 in their third game at the 2007 FINA Women's Junior World Championship improving to 2-1 with the conclusion of pool play. The squad will take on Japan tomorrow at 4:30pm. If they are victorious in that game they will move on to tangle with Italy in the quarterfinals.

The red, white, and blue owned every quarter opening things up with a 4-1 advantage after the first period of play. In that stanza Forel Davies, Lauren Silver, Tanya Gandy, and Grace Reynolds all scored goals to help build the American lead. In the second quarter Germany came to life tallying two scores of their own but Team USA responded with three more scores as Silver, Gandy, and Darby Anderson all lit the proverbial lamp to build a 7-3 advantage at the half

In the third Team USA pulled away outscoring the Germans 5-2 behind two goals from Davies and a score apiece from Silver, Anderson, and Kameryn Craig. The fourth saw more of the same with a trio of USA goals coming off the hands of Craig, Anderson, and Silver.

It was a well balanced attack for Team USA that featured five girls scoring at least two goals with Silver leading the pack at four tallies. In goal for Team USA was the duo of Amber Oland and Jillian Stapf. Oland recorded eight saves while Stapf racked up three. The United States went four out of six on man up scenarios while Germany was just four out of thirteen. The group returns to the Piscina Municipal de Campanha tomorrow to take on Japan at 4:30pm..

Goals By Quarters

1st Quarter

USA - 4 (Forel Davies, Lauren Silver, Tanya Gandy, Grace Reynolds)
Germany - 1 (Claudia Kern)

2nd Quarter

USA - 3 (Darby Anderson, Lauren Silver, Tanya Gandy)
Germany - 2 (Anja Seyfert, Jasmin Krieter)

3rd Quarter

USA - 5 (Kameryn Craig, Darby Anderson, Forel Davies (2), Lauren Silver
Germany - 2 (Jasmin Krieter, Mariam Salloum)

4th Quarter

USA - 3 (Kameryn Craig, Darby Anderson, Lauren Silver)
Germany - 1 (Caroline Seifert)

Saves: Amber Oland - 8, Jillian Stapf - 3

Taken from USAWaterPolo.org

A Tough Loss

After a convincing 18-1 victory in their first game of the 2007 FINA Women's Junior World Championships it was a different story on day two for the Team USA Junior Women's National Team as they fell to Hungary in a heart breaker 11-10

The first quarter of play was all even as the squads were tied at four headed to the second period. Team USA received their goals via a hat trick from Tanya Gandy and a single score put home by Lauren Silver. The second stanza would see Team USA build a halftime lead as they outscored the Hungarians 3-2. Silver again answered the call finding the back of the net while Kameryn Craig tacked on two scores of her own.

Emerging from the intermission holding an 7-6 lead the third quarter produced another even showing as both teams notched two scores apiece leaving the game at a one goal advantage for Team USA 9-8 as played moved to the fourth. In the third all the scoring came from Silver as she tallied four goals on the day.

The fourth quarter is where Hungary was able to do damage when they outscored Team USA 3-1 including two tallies late en route to the one goal victory. In that quarter the lone American goal came from Gandy who like Silver ended her day with four scores.

Amber Oland played the whole way in net denying seven Hungarian shots and Team USA went four out of nine on man up scenarios while Hungary cashed in on six out of ten in their opportunities.

"We played well in many aspects of the game, but mental errors late were costly. The team is ready to bounce back tomorrow against Germany and then we'll know what our path through the rest of the tournament looks like," commented head coach Kyle Utsumi.

Next up on the docket for Team USA will be that aforementioned Wednesday matchup with Germany as they finish up group play. At 1-1 the team is now in second place behind Hungary who currently has a perfect 2-0 record.

-Taken from USAWaterPolo.org

Starting With a Win

Phoebe and the U.S. team began the tournament with a convincing 18-1 win last night over the host Portugal to open their schedule at the Junior World Championships. Phoebe scored a goal in the third period of the win.

Click here for stats from the game and here for a photo gallery.

The team plays again tonight at 7:30 p.m. local time, that's 2:30 p.m. on the East Coast of the U.S., against Hungary. Based on goal differential, the U.S. is atop the Group A standing, just ahead of Hungary, which topped Germany 11-3 in its first game. The U.S. faces Germany on Thursday.

Keep checking back for more info.

-PA

Getting Ready for the Tournament to Begin

Hello hello-

Sorry, I haven't had much chance to write a "diary" so to speak, but we've been in Portugal for the past couple days now and our first game is tonight against Portugal at 9 p.m. We're so excited to actually play! Training and training without a game that actually matters has been getting old... but we're having a ton of fun too.

We arrived in Europe a few weeks ago and have trained in the Netherlands with Dutch Junior National team. Now we're in Portugal ready for the tournament to begin and we play the hosts in the opening game.

The U.S. is the defending champion of the event, winning it in 2005.

In addition to updates here, you can go to www.USAWaterPolo.com or www.porto2007.net (click on the british flag for the English version).

-Phoebe