Australia will play Canada for third spot in the six-nation Holiday Cup women’s water polo international series in Los Alamitos.

Los Angeles, USA (December 10).— 
 
Australia lost to World League champion United States of America 12-8 today but head coach Greg McFadden said there were many positives in an up-and-down tournament.

“We started very well and were up early 2-0, which we maintained until halftime to be leading 7-5.

“We lost Gemma Beadsworth midway through the second quarter with three fouls and allowed some easy goals after we had worked hard to score, which was disappointing.

” Beadsworth’s exclusion meant there were only two women left from the World Cup-winning team as Bronwen Knox and Emma Knox were both injured.

“This left us with a very inexperienced team and also a big player short, but provided opportunities for four of our junior team members to get valuable pool time,” he said.

The second half saw Australia go down 7-1 with many missed chances, including a five-metre penalty.

Australia was best served by Kate Gynther and Nikita Cuffe who returned to top form in Australian colours.

“Overall, it was a pleasing performance but we still need to have a lot more confidence in our individual ability and hunger to score goals.

“Once again our extra-man statistics ((3/13) were poor.

We did create some scoring options but poor finishing let us down.”

The USA and Russia will play for the gold medal.

Results: Holiday Cup for women, Los Alamitos, USA,
day 4:
Netherlands 12 Australia 8 (N Cuffe 3, G Beadsworth 2, K Gynther, J Santoromito, J Moran),
Canada 8 USA 8,
Russia 13 Italy 12.
Final points: USA 10, Russia 7, Australia 5, Canada 4, Italy 2, Netherlands 2.