Aussie Sharks win 3 test series against USA

The Aussie Sharks including WA’s Aaron Younger, George and Andrew Ford and Tim Putt have further confirmed their status as medal contenders for the Tokyo Olympic games with a convincing series win over the United States in Brisbane.

After taking out the first of the three game series with a come from behind thriller the Sharks narrowly lost a close game in the second to see the series tied at one game a piece.

A close game through the opening three periods saw The Stingers with a narrow one point advantage, with the series win in their sights the Stingers added five goals in the final period to storm home to victory.

“After the last game we went back to the drawing board and made sure we were getting out the tactics and game plan as we wanted,” said Aussie Stingers captain and West Australian Aaron Younger.

“The boys were a lot more focused today on what we needed to do and it went in our favour.

“We’ve been working on our extra man, especially over the last two days since the last game where we were really poor in our extra man. So in the two days since then we’ve been focusing on making the moves a lot more crisp and pulling the defenders out of position a bit more.”

The closely contested series for The Stingers ended with the top ranked USA taking the final game to win the series 2-1.

Game two of the series saw The Stingers including WA’s Zoe Arancini end a 69-game winning streak for the US in a sign they will be challenging for the medals in Tokyo in August.

A goal lead at the start of the final quarter was not enough to stop the USA storming home as they dominated the final period with five goals to Australia’s one to take the game 10-7.

Players will now head back to their Clubs for the OVO Australian Water Polo League before the next international tour and competition at the FINA World League Inter-continental Cup.