Australia’s women’s water polo team, the Aussie Stingers, have booked their place in the semi-finals of the FINA World Championships with an emphatic 9-5 victory over defending champions Greece on day nine in Barcelona, Spain.
The Stingers unleashed their trademark physical defence from the opening whistle and never looked back as they built upon a 3-1 first quarter to seal their first world championship semi-final since 2007.
They will now face Russia who eased past Canada 17-9 in their quarter-final. WAIS had two scholarship holders playing in the match, with Glencora McGhie and Zoe Arancini both featuring.
London 2012 heroes Bronwen Knox, Rowie Webster, Glencora McGhie and Ashleigh Southern all scored twice in the victory, with skipper Knox particularly pleased with her team’s determination in defence.
“I couldn’t be happier with our team effort. We had such a great defence and we really worked to the finish,” Knox said.
“We will now play Russia which will be a very tough game. I haven’t been in a world championship semi-final since 2007 and lot of these girls haven’t been in one so it will be a new experience, but one we are very excited about.”
The Stingers began swiftly with goals to Southern, Webster and McGhie, before extending that margin to 4-2 at half time.
Their lead should have been more, such was Australia’s early domination, but missed opportunities and a failure to convert on the counter afforded Greece an avenue back.
A goal to Greece early in the third had the score at 4-3, but timely replies by Southern and Knox saw Australia extend their advantage to 6-4 at the last break.
Quick fire goals to Knox, Webster and young gun Jayde Appel early in the fourth had Australia on the front foot, and despite a late strike to Greece, the Stingers were able to coast to the line for their fifth win of the campaign.
Coach Greg McFadden was ecstatic with his team’s defensive pressure early in the match and said things were progressing nicely ahead of their semi-final showdown with Russia.
“We started really well and everything we spoke about in defence before the game we achieved, so overall I was very pleased with our defensive performance and our extra man defence was excellent,” McFadden said.
“In attack we kind of lost our way in the second quarter and I thought we should have been further ahead at half time, but the girls kept at it in the third term and then in the fourth Bron scored, then Rowie and Jayde and that was the end of the game.
“Now we are in the heart of the competition and the semi-finals will be tough and we’ll reach the real high level of the tournament. We are one of the favourites, but not the favourite. We want the gold medal just like the other teams.”
Australia’s semi-final clash against Russia is at 2.15am (Perth time) on Thursday morning, with hosts Spain taking on Hungary in the other semi, having taking out Olympic champions USA 9-6 in the day’s final match. Australia’s men’s team, the Aussie Sharks, will play their quarter-final versus Croatia at 1am tomorrow morning.
-WaterPoloAustralia
