Despite an 18-7 thumping of China, Australia has finished second in their group after the round robin stage of the FINA Women’s Junior World Championships in Trieste, Italy.
The Australians went into the game needing to win by at least 14 goals to ensure they topped their group and earn an automatic seeding into the quarterfinals following an earlier win over Mexico and draw against Hungary.
The second placing in Group A means Australia will now play minnows Uzbekistan in the next qualifying round before a heavyweight quarterfinal matchup against Greece on Thursday.
Against China Australia got off to a great start, leading 4-1 at the first break and 9-3 at half time before piling on six unanswered goals in the third quarter to lead by 15-3 and the necessary 14 goal victory in sight.
But they took their foot off the pedal in the last term, something Croa player Maddie Schmidt said let them down.
“We had a good counter attack game where we scored lot of goals,” Schmidt said.
“Our defence was also strong but in the last quarter we made too many mistakes at both ends of the pool.”
Australian coach Peter Szilagyi (WAIS head coach women’s water polo) echoed Schmidt’s comments, noting each game was must win from now on if Australia wanted to claim the gold medal.
“We played with lot of confidence today with great attitude for three quarters,” Szilagyi said.
“(But) our passing and converting in attack become really poor when we were 12 goals ahead.
“Tomorrow we have another must win game coming.”
WAIS was further represented by athletes Zoe Arancini and Elisha Browne, who both lined up for Australia.
– Australian Water Polo
