USA vs ITALY

Ends in a tie 9-9...
The Italians go up on us 2-0 but that did not stop us from taking shots and going right after them..We were very unfortunate with our shooting in the first quarter hitting lots of post but we were shooting with confidence...
In the second quarter we finally got one in the goal with a little commerce connection..We draw an exclusion at center and I passed the ball to patty and she buried in the goal.. The Italians scored again and that put that back ahead 3-1..We were still going after them trying to get into an offensive flow..Hayes put away another power play to give us our second goal..But the Italians would regain their two goal lead but we were not done before the half was over. Leave it to our youngest to power one into the goal from the center position from a great entry pass from Hayes..Hayes would then score her second goal of the night with a perfect lob that was out of reach of the Italian goalkeeper...We went into half with tied 4-4..
The Italians scored first coming out of the half time break..But that lead would be short lived as Villa (me) scored on a power play...Minutes went by and Jessica Steffens scores a natural goal that was a beautiful perfect corner that went bar in..This would be the first time US takes the lead..With the third quarter coming to an end the Italians would even up the score once again..
Coming out of the gates for the final quarter saw a lot of back and forth action both teams pushing the counter attack and transition to get something started, the US was finally able to convert on a counter attack, Villa scores a goal that trickles in very slowly...We will take it (they don't all have to be pretty)...The US would keep the lead and extend the lead with from Stanford alum Alison Gregorka, another beautiful natural goal..Our two goal lead would be cut to one by an outside shot and with a minute left in the game the Italians drew an exclusion and called a timeout..they converted the 60n5 and the game was tied with :22 seconds left in the game..We called a time out, ran a play and got an entry pass into the center position, Craig tried to get a shot off but the italian defender clamped down and the game ended in a tie...

***** In the last match of the game we saw China defeat Russia 13-11..which means that the russians do not have a chance of advancing to the quarterfinal rounds..We must beat Russia friday and await the outcome of the China/Italy game which is played later that day to determine which position we will end up in our bracket...

scorers:
USA - 9 (0,4,2,3) B. Hayes 2, B. Villa 2, H. Petri 1, P. Cardenas 1, J. Steffens 1, A. Gregorka 1, K. Craig 1ITA - 9 (2,2,2,3) M. Miceli 2, T. di Mario 2, E. Casanova 1, S. Bosurgi 1, E. Valkai 1, M. Zanchi 1, C. Ragusa
Armstrong 10 saves