Monday, June 30, 2008

OLYMPIC TEAM ANNOUCED TODAY!!!


USA Olympic Team announced today at the LAAC....
Brenda Villa, Heather Petri, Natalie Golda..
Betsey Armstrong, Jaime Hipp, Lauren Wenger, Moriah VanNorman, Alison Gregorka, Elsie Windes, Patty Cardenas, Jessica Steffens, Brittany Hayes, Kami Craig...
Today at the press conference there were a few questions asked after the team was announced about how young are team is...The average age of our team is 24.6..according to Guy this team's age average is older than the past two olympic teams..On paper our team may seem young because we will have 10 first time olympian but let's not forget that this team knows what it feels like to be in the "big moment" we played australia in australia for the gold medal at world championships and won.. ..
Above are the name of the 13 girls that will represent the USA on their quest to the podium...
Go team USA!!!!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Thetis Cup- Crete, Greece

Game 1 Italy vs USA L 10-9
Game 2 Germany vs USA W 13-5
Game 3 Greece vs USA w 11-10

Details to follow...

Commerce makes it into the New York Times!!!

Please Read this great article on the city of commerce and water polo...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/sports/olympics/18polo.html?ref=sports

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Game 6 Final USA vs Rus

USA 7 Russia 8...... more details to come later...Russia scores with about :20 seconds left in game to win first world league title...

Scoring:

USA: 7 (2,0,3,2) H. Petri 2, B. Villa 2, N. Golda 1, E. Windes 1, A. Gregorka 1
RUS: 8 (3,2,1,2)

6x5 -- USA - 4-8 - RUS 3-7

Saves: USA - B. Armstrong 10

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Game 5 USA vs Spain

USA 11 Spain 9

Although our 5on6 defense was not very good today, our offense came to play tonight and we were able to hold off the spanish for a win. The game before us saw Russia and Australia go into a shootout.. Russia lost the shootout but still advance to the final game with the point they received from the shootout. Tomorrow should be a very fun,physical and competitive game..Just they way we like it...



USA 11 (1,4,4,2) N. Golda 4, B. Villa 2, K. Craig 2, L. Wenger 1, B. Hayes 1. M. van Norman 1
ESP 9 (2,2,3,2)

6x5 -- USA - 3-6 -- ESP - 6-8

Saves: USA - J. Hipp 8

Friday, June 13, 2008

Check out my Slide Show!

Game 4 USA vs Can

USA 6 Can 5
More to come after Heather Petri's birthday dinner/celebration...

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Game 3 USA vs China

USA 12 CHN 8
After playing the first game of the day for the last two days here in the canary islands, we finally had a little more down time and we played the second game.. We were able to watch some of the first game which saw an upset of Australia by the Canadiens. This forshaddowed the way our game would play out, sort of..However, we did not allow the 15 kick outs called against us to deter us from our objective of getting a win, in whatever way was necessary..
We ended the first quarter with a deficit of two.. We were not able to convert on offense and they were able to score.. We started the second quarter in a calm and calculating way. We were able to get on the scoreboard by converting a 6on5 which led us to score 5 goals to their 1 in the second quarter. The game continued to be close throughout the second half but we maintained our composure played excellent 5on6 defense and were able finally to get some natural goals and give us a cushion.
USA: 12 (0,5,4,3) E. Figge 3, B.Hayes 2, A. Gregorka 2, P.Cardenas 2, L. Wenger 1, B.Villa 1, H.Petri 1
CHN: 9 (2,1,3,3)

6x5 -- USA - 5-6 -- CHN - 5-15

Saves -- USA - B. Armstrong 8, J. Hipp 4


Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Game 2 USA vs Rus

USA 10 Rus 6
We were able to continue or momentum from last night's win and were able jump on Russia 3-0. We did a better job today with maintaining a lead by keeping our composure and sticking to the game plan, which is simple play great defense and counter. At the end of the second quarter we kept our 3 goal lead and ended the half with 4-1 lead.
The start of the second half saw Russia pick up their offensive attack but we met their challenge and answered back matching them goal for goal and ended the quarter with 4 goals to their 3.
We started the fourth quarter with a four goal lead and we did not look back..There was about 3 minutes of chaotic play by both teams but no one was able to convert their goals. We were able to draw first blood in the fourth quarter and that gave us the confidence and composure to keep playing without letting Russia back in the game.

Tomorrow we play China, which is our first opponent at the Olympics..
Other scores: Aus 10 China 8, Spain 7 Canada 5.
Scoring:

USA: 10 (3, 1, 4, 2) E. Windes 2, B. Hayes 2, H. Petri 1, B. Villa 1, L. Wenger 1, N. Golda 1, P. Cardenas 1, K. Craig 1
RUS: 6 (0, 1, 3, 2) N. Shepelina 2, N. Vylegzhanina 2, Y. Gaufler 1, O. Turova 1

6x5 -- USA - 2-5 -- RUS - 3-7

Saves: USA - B. Armstrong 12

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Game 1 Usa vs Aus

USA 10 - Aus 9
The australians started out very strong and very aggresive. In the first two minutes of the game the australians scored on their first two possessions and we struggled a bit. Petie opened up our scoring with a great cross cage skip shot and that got us going... The first quarter ended up 3-3.
The second quarter saw a bit of a US surge..We lead 6-4 in the middle of the second quarter but were not able to maintain ball control and we let the australian back in the end. At half time the game was tied once again..
The third quarter saw some inconsistent play from us.. We had a couple 6on5 opportunities that we did not convert. The Aussies on the other hand connected on two of their 6on5 opportunities. The third quarter ended up with the Aussies with a one goal advantage....
We come out in the fourth quarter with a mentality that we had no option..we had to win this game.. We had three natural goals in the fourth quarter and missed a couple 6 on5 opportunities but our defense and Betsey come through to secure our win..With 40 sec left in the game Australia earned an ejection and Betsey come up with a great save which meant in we could control the ball for 20 seconds we would walk away with the win..The australians received the ball back with 1.5 seconds left but that was not enough time for them..
Tomorrow we play Russia same time...

USA: 10 (3, 3, 1, 3) H. Petri 3, N. Golda 2, L. Wenger 1, B. Villa 1, P. Cardenas 1, J. Steffens 1, E. Windes 1
AUS: 9 (3, 3, 2, 3)

6x5 -- USA 3-8 -- AUS 3-6 -- Penalty - AUS 0-1

Saves: B. Armstrong - 11

OTHER SCORES: RUSSIA 15 CANADA 7, SPAIN 6 CHINA 6 ( SPAIN WINS IN SHOOT OUT)..

opening ceremonies


Here is a taste of spanish carnival..Yesterday, we had a mini opening ceremonies and the people of Tenerife wanted to give us a taste of their festivities..It was so much fun and so much energy..




Friday, June 6, 2008

World League Super Final Schedule

June 10
1600 Aus vs USA
1730 CAn vs Rus
1900 ESP vs Ch

June 11
1600 USA vs Rus
1730 Aus vs Chn
1900 Esp vs Can

June 12
1600 Can vs Aus
1730 Chn vs USA
1900 Esp vs Rus

June 13
1600 Can vs USA
1730 Chn vs Rus
1900 Esp vs Aus

June 14
1600 Chn vs Can
1730 Rus vs Aus
1900 Esp vs USa

June 15
TBD

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Canary Islands and Super World League Finals

I know its been a long time since I have blogged and Im sorry..The daily grind of our training does not seem exciting enough to blog about for me. However, we are getting ready to leave on saturday morning for the Canary Islands..Can you believe that?? I hope that they are everything Im imagining them to be..It seems such an exotic destinations and such a random place for a water polo tournament.
However, we are all business even if its a great location. We are coming into our last big tournament that will give us a little more information about ourselves and our opponents as we prepare for Beijing. We are all very excited to play real games against real opponents. So make sure you check back june 10 as we open up the tournament against Australia. The format of the tournament is a round robin between the six teams with the best two records playing for first, etc..wish us luck and follow our path...
Go team USA!!!