14.08.2012

The Australian women’s water polo team, the Aussie Stingers, have won Olympic bronze after enduring yet another nail-biting struggle to defeat Hungary 13-11 in extra time.

The game looked like being decided in normal time after retiring keeper Alicia McCormack found herself in possession with five seconds remaining, but an unfortunate mistake allowing Hungary’s Dora Antal to capitalise sent the game into extra time.

McCormack was challenged by two Hungarians and when the ball was turned over defender Antal flicked it into the goals with less than a second on the clock to force Australia’s third extra time game in a row.

Australia stood firm, however, with Gemma Beadsworth netting twice in extra minutes to seal the tense victory and send off retiring trio McCormack and step-sisters Kate Gynther and Mel Rippon in fine style.

For Gynther and Rippon it was a fitting end to the careers having both represented Australia since 2001, including Olympic appearances at Athens Beijing and now London.

“We’re over the moon. That’s the third game in a row in extra-time and to pull that out is amazing,” Gynther said.

“We had a never say die attitude,” Rippon added. “We were never going to lose no matter what happened.”

For coach Greg McFadden it was another stressful end to a campaign, having also led the Stingers to bronze in Beijing, but one he was happy to endure.

“We were the best team all game but the last quarter we did a few silly things and they got back in and then we thought we had it won and there was just a brain snap,” McFadden said.

“These things happen. But it was great, the girls showed the composure to come back in that second extra time and nail the game.

“We have spent four years together chasing the dream. We’ve had a really tough Olympics but we’ve played really well and we’ve showed lots of character and I’m extremely proud of the girls but I’m also so happy for the girls because they have worked so hard and they deserve the medal.

“And any medal is a good medal, it doesn’t matter what colour it is – today it is a bronze medal.”

After a tight opening term, the Stingers produced a barrage of goals in the second quarter to open up a 7-4 advantage at half time.

Rocket arm Ash Southern scored a double to increase her tournament tally to 13, while Beadsworth continued her domination as centre forward netting her second.

Hungary mounted a strong challenge in the second half scoring seven goals to four. Their eighth of the game, a five metre penalty to centre forward Barbara Bujka, drew them to within one, before Jane Moran eased the pressure off the back of a brilliant counter set up by Rippon.

Captain Gynther netted a lob that was deflected in by a Hungarian defender to start the fourth but as was the case throughout, Hungary struck back almost immediately with a patient extra man goal.

Neither team could trouble the scorer for the next four and a half minutes before Hungary drilled one off the cross bar that then ricocheted from the back of McCormack’s head to make a it a one goal game.

Southern then found the ire of the referee and was excluded with 44 seconds remaining prompting the Hungarian coach to call a timeout.

But they couldn’t convert the extra man opportunity and when McCormack made the save with 11 seconds to go it appeared the bronze was Australia’s – but her disposeesion, a shock for someone of her experience, caused more tense moments the Australian's.

Aussie Stingers

Victoria Brown, Gemma Beadsworth, Sophie Smith, Holly Lincoln-Smith, Jane Moran, Bronwen Knox, Rowie Webster, Kate Gynther (c), Glencora Ralph, Ash Southern, Mel Rippon, Nicola Zagame, Alicia McCormack

Result: Australia 13 bt Hungary 11 (11-11 in normal time, 2-0 in extra time)

Qtrs: 2-1, 5-3, 3-4, 1-3 (XT 1: 1-0, XT 2: 1-0)

X man for: 5 from 7 and 1 from 1 penalty

X man against: 3 from 4 and 2 from 2 penalties

AUS Scorers: Gemma Beadsworth 4, Ash Southern 2, Holly Lincoln-Smith 2, Rowie Webster 2, Kate Gynther, Nicola Zagame, Jane Moran

The Stingers in agony after their loss to the USA (Grant Treeby Images)

Semi-f: Stingers lose thriller

The Australian women’s water polo team, the Aussie Stingers, have fallen agonisingly close in pulling off another miracle as they went down to the USA 11-9 in extra time.

Australia will now play off for the bronze medal against the loser of Spain versus Hungary, after again falling at the last hurdle to the Americans.

The USA pipped the Stingers 9-8 in the semi-final of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and in history’s cruel way of repeating itself, the two-time Olympic silver medallists again produced the goods as they held their nerve for a dramatic win.

The match looked like being decided in normal time after America drew clear with a minute forty remaining. But when American coach Adam Krikorian called a timeout, one that by the rules he was not entitled to call because his team was not in possession, referees halted proceedings and after consulting technical officials awarded Australia a five metre penalty with one second remaining.

Withstanding the shock of the decision, 19-year-old sensation Ashleigh Southern was then handed the opportunity to level the game at 9-9 and with consummate ease rifled the shot into the left hand corner of the net to give Australia an unforseen second chance.

Unfortunately for the Stingers, brutal defence by the Americans and a player of the match performance by US centre forward Kami Craig helped America establish an 11-9 lead - one they were able to hold on to for the victory.

“I don’t know if it was lucky,” Australian coach Greg McFadden said of the five metre penalty. “I actually thought they should have got one 15 seconds earlier.

“In the end though, America was too good and too strong.”

“It’s hard for everyone. It’s devastating any loss in the semis, but we now have to regroup for the bronze medal game in two days’ time.

“Being beaten by America is no embarrassment; they’ve probably been the most consistent team in the last four years and it’s very rarely they get beaten.

“Of course I’m very proud, we had a very emotional game against China and it took a lot out of us, and to back up again in extra time, particularly against America was very tough.”

Australia got off to a great start building a 2-0 lead early in the first quarter with Southern and Rowie Webster unleashing a barrage of thunderous strikes.

The Americans got their first through an outside shot to Courtney Matthewson, before Holly Lincoln-Smith earned a great five metre penalty at centre forward with Southern converting for her second.

The Stingers clearly got the upper hand in the opening exchanges but a couple of lucky ricochets, one off the post and then head of keeper Alicia McCormack, allowed the US to draw level at 3-3.

America produced their ‘A’ game in the second quarter going on a three goal run to open up a two goal lead. A third strike from Southern and a brilliant penalty save by McCormack kept the Stingers in it, but the signs were ominous.

Australia was again forced under early foul trouble with Sophie Smith and Nicola Zagame having two majors to their name in the first half. Zagame did net a precious goal in the closing stages to reduce the margin to one, but her exclusion from the game in the third term proved costly.

In attack, the Stingers were trigger happy as only their resilient defence preserved the slender deficit. What was more telling, however, was the lob sided exclusion count – with America conceding four to the Australians eight midway through the third period.

Australia’s courage again stood tall, though, with Webster finding the back of the net to cancel out Maggie Steffens fourth, and leave the scores at 7-6 heading into the last.

The fourth quarter began much like the third with no goals early but when Australian captain Kate Gynther was excluded Jessica Steffens nailed the extra man chance to reinstate the two goal buffer.

Australia replied almost immediately with a composed extra man lob by Glencora Ralph., but the USA were still ahead 8-7 with four minutes remaining. On Australia’s next possession Holly Lincoln-Smith earned an exclusion and Beadsworth showed all her experience to lock the scores up at 8-all.

The Americans scored next in extra man via Melissa Seidemann, following Beadsworth’s first exclusion, to again take the lead. Neither side could score on their next possession but after McFadden called his last timeout the Australians dream of playing for the gold hung on less than 30 seconds.

In the final possession the USA defence was stifling and the Australians could not get off a shot until Gynther fired one at the goals that cannoned off the posts and into a scrum of players. In the ensuing second – the very last of the match – confusion reigned leading to the miraculous penalty.

The Stingers will now have to settle for a second consecutive bronze medal playoff, a result that is disappointing but one that is just reward for their efforts.

Aussie Stingers

Victoria Brown, Gemma Beadsworth, Sophie Smith, Holly Lincoln-Smith, Jane Moran, Bronwen Knox, Rowie Webster, Kate Gynther (c), Glencora Ralph, Ash Southern, Mel Rippon, Nicola Zagame, Alicia McCormack

Result: Australia 9 lost to USA 11 (9-9 normal time, 0-2 extra time)

Qtrs: 3-3, 2-3, 1-1, 3-2 (XT 1: 0-2, XT 2: 0-0)

X man for: 4 from 7 and 2 from 2 penalties

X man against: 2 from 4 and 0 from 1 penalty

AUS Scorers: Ash Southern 4, Rowie Webster 2, Nicola Zagame, Glencora Ralph, Gemma Beadsworth

The Stingers celebrating their dramatic victory over China (Grant Treeby Images)

Qtr-f: Stingers triumph in thriller

In an astonishing last quarter comeback, and thrilling extra-time and penalty shootout performance, the Australian women’s water polo team, the Aussie Stingers, have produce one of their greatest ever wins at the Olympic Games, defeating China 20-18 after penalties to progress to the semi-finals.

Rivalling Australia’s miracle gold medal win in Sydney 2000, the Aussie Stingers were able to hold their nerve to recover from 14-12 down at three-quarter time and one nil in penalties, to record a memorable victory that lasted over one and a half hours and was played in front of a packed Australian crowd.

The Stingers, now undefeated with four wins from four games at London2012, battled foul trouble all night with Brownen Knox, Nicola Zagame, Gemma Beadsworth and Kate Gynther all earning three majors.

In normal circumstances, those four players would have been the cornerstone of Australia’s penalty shootout squad, but with a medal game on the line, Rowie Webster, Glencora Ralph, Ashleigh Southern, Holly Lincoln-Smith and triple Olympian Mel Rippon were left to stand tall and take the strikes

A nervy Rowie Webster missed the first shot handing China the advantage, but confident conversions from Ralph and Southern, a brilliant save by Alicia McCormack and a crucial miss by Gao Ao left 31-year old Rippon the chance to be the hero.

With every ounce of experience from her 307-game career on her side, the former captain and Beijing bronze medallist withstood the pressure to place the ball in the lower left hand corner and send the 5000 crowd on hand into raptures.

“It’s one of those games that I think we just showed the spirit of this team,” a proud Rippon said.

“It doesn’t matter what the score is we’re never going to give up and we just fought it out to the end. There wasn’t a moment when i didn’t think we could do it no matter what the score was.

“It keeps the Olympic dream alive.”

It was a high scoring opening term with Zagame and China’s Huanhuan Ma each netting a hat-trick. Zagame was again superb on the counter scoring her fifth and sixth counter-attack goal of the tournament to level Australia at 5-5 at the first break.

Beadsworth and Lincoln-Smith then converted two centre forward goals early in the second term – the latter off a brilliant pass from captain Gynther – to open up a two goal lead.  

Every time the Stingers built an advantage, though, the Chinese pegged it back through patient attack and brilliant outside shooting from Ma and Yujun Sun.

The Chinese game, which was built on the strong centre forward play of Jin He, caused havoc for Australia, winning numerous extra-man opportunities and putting the Stingers’ in extreme foul trouble. Bronwen Knox was out of the game three minutes into the third term and Zagame 30 seconds from three-quarter time, while Beadsworth was left stranded on two major fouls for the majority of the second half.

Gynther was able to keep the Stingers in the contest netting two goals, including a 5m penalty earned by Lincoln–Smith at centre forward, but China again kicked away with captain Fei Teng and Ma giving China a 12-10 lead.

With Beadsworth out, 19-year old superstar Southern was thrusted into the foreign centre forward position and earned a kick out before converting for her first goal of the game. She then back that up with a brilliant 5m shot to level the scores at 13-13.

China again proved their mettle edging ahead 14-13, before the diminutive, 167cm tall Jane Moran pinched hit at centre forward producing a remarkable kick out against her much larger opponent to give Australia one final attack. From that Lincoln-Smith again rose to the occasion netting a superb back hander to give Australia the equaliser and send the game into extra-time.

In the first three minute period of extra time, China had the first opportunity to score with two separate extra man chances but couldn’t get a shot away to hand Australia the ascendancy.

Then when the Chinese sat off Ralph at the other end she didn’t need a second chance converting for a 15-14 lead.

An extra man goal to China after a dubious exclusion against Lincoln-Smith tied things up, before Rippon was left alone and made the Chinese pay with five seconds left in the period for a 16-15 lead.

In the deciding period Gynther was excluded after 80 seconds – her third - leaving the Aussies with just seven possible field players for the tense remainder. China couldn’t capitalise immediately, but after yet another exclusion, this time to Ralph, China was able to find the back of the net with 44 seconds left.

McFadden called a timeout and it was left to one of the Stingers many heroes, Southern to take the last shot – a bullet that smashed into the posts and ricocheted away forcing the game into a penalty shootout.

The Australians will now play the winner of tonight’s match between the USA and Italy for a place in the gold medal decider.

Aussie Stingers

Victoria Brown, Gemma Beadsworth, Sophie Smith, Holly Lincoln-Smith, Jane Moran, Bronwen Knox, Rowie Webster, Kate Gynther (c), Glencora Ralph, Ash Southern, Mel Rippon, Nicola Zagame, Alicia McCormack

Result: Australia 20 bt China 18 (14-14 normal time, 4-2 penalty shootout)

Qtrs: 5-5, 3-3, 2-4, 4-2 (XT 1: 1-1, XT 2: 1-1)

X man for: 4 from 5 and 1 from 1 penalty

X man against: China scored 4 from 8 and 1 from 1 penalty

AUS Scorers: Glencora Ralph 4, Nicola Zagame 3, Ash Southern 3, Holly Lincoln-Smith 3, Mel Rippon 2, Kate Gynther 2, Gemma Beadsworth 2, Rowie Webster