Perth, Australia - March 28 - The USA Women's National Team wrapped up group play at the FINA Intercontinental Tournament with a 3-0 record following a 20-3 win over New Zealand.
Brigitta Games (Littleton, CO/USC/NYAC) led the way with five goals with
Ashleigh Johnson (Miami, FL/Princeton/NYAC) earned the victory in net. Team USA now advances to the quarterfinal round where they will meet South Africa on Friday at 5:30pm local time/5:30am et/2:30am pt. All matches will stream live via subscription service FINA TV and can be accessed by
clicking here. For the complete Team USA roster and schedule,
click here.
The match was never in doubt as Team USA roared to a 5-1 lead in the first quarter and blanked New Zealand 6-0 in the second quarter. Ahead 11-1 to open second half play Team USA added three more goals in the third and six more in the fourth to cap the victory. Team USA went 6/9 on power plays with no penalties attempted while New Zealand was 1/9 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties. One of the highlights for New Zealand was a near full-court goal scored after Johnson joined the USA offense during the end of the fourth quarter.
"Making my international senior tournament debut has been super fun," said Honnie Vandeweghe-O'Shea. "I have been learning so much from the older players; just the experience from every practice and game is just so cool. It was a good match. It is always good to play a match; it was just so much fun."
Scoring
USA 20 (5, 6, 3, 6) B. Games 5, J. Raney 3, J. Neushul 3, A. Williams 3, R. Fattal 1, A. Hill 1, M. Steffens 1, S. Haralabidis 1, H. Vandeweghe-O'Shea 1, K. Neushul 1
NZL 3 (1, 0, 1, 1) K. Hudson 1, E. Houghton 1, K. Enoka 1
6x5 - USA - 6/9 - NZL - 1/9
Penalties - USA - 0/0 - NZL - 1/1
