Stingers go down fighting in battle for bronze

The Ord Minnett Australian Women’s Water Polo team went down fighting in the bronze medal game at the World Aquatics Championships, narrowly going down to Italy 14-16.

While it’s not the result the Stingers were hoping for, overall their World Championships campaign has been successful, the team aiming to better their result from the previous World Championships which was sixth.

Today’s bronze medal playoff delivered an extremely close and physical contest, with no more than three goals separating the two sides at any stage.

Trailing by one at the end of the first quarter, the Aussies staged a strong comeback to lock up the score 10-10 at half time.

With Italy suffering a red card before the halfway point, the third quarter saw the Aussies a player up, but unfortunately weren’t able to capitalise enough with the extra player to push ahead of Italy.

The Italians proved relentless in their defence, and after a big win earlier in the tournament against reigning Olympic and World champions USA, they were determined to finish with a medal.

Australia didn’t go down without a fight and were in it right until the end, showing promising signs just 12 months out from the Paris Olympic Games.

The New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) was represented in the squad by Zoe Arancini (c), Pascalle Casey, Bronte Halligan, Tilly Kearns, Genevieve Longman, Amy Ridge (pictured above), Ruby Swadling.

The Aussies will now need to play New Zealand in the Oceania Olympic Qualifier in Auckland from 11-13 August 2023, with the winner of the three test match series booking their ticket to the Paris Olympic Games.

Australian Head Coach, Paul Oberman, said while today’s loss is hard to take, a top four finish is what they set out to achieve at this tournament.

“To make the top four is a success,” Oberman said. “To have two disappointing losses in the end – fourth place is always the worst place to come, you lose your last two games after all the good work you have done early.

“But it’s still a success and a good building block for the future”

“Italy were playing a very tough, physical press. We had to play a little bit tougher and stronger. We knew that Italy was going to come out physically and we just had to try and match it and play our style.

“There is still learning to go, I am not going to deny that.

“More importantly for us right now in two weeks, we are playing in the Olympic qualifiers against New Zealand.

“With this disappointment we have got to turn this around in a short timeframe and then look at what we need to do to play against New Zealand and prepare for them,” he said.

The Ord Minnett Aussie Stingers will now return to Australia before departing for New Zealand to compete in the Oceania Olympic Qualifier from 11-13 August as they look to book their spot in the Paris Olympic Games.

AUSTRALIA: 1. Palm, Gabi; 2. CASEY, Pascalle (1); 3. ARMIT, Elle (1); 4. HALLIGAN, Bronte (2); 5. LEESON-SMITH, Bridget (1); 6. ANDREWS, Abby (2); 7. ANDREWS, Charlize (2); 8. RIDGE, Amy; 9. ARANCINI, Zoe (1); 10. WILLIAMS, Alice (3); 11. KEARNS, Tilly (1); 12. FASALA, Tenealle; 13. LONGMAN, Genevieve

• Bolded names denote NSWIS scholarship athletes.

Story courtesy of Water Polo Australia