US Women defeat the Black Stick Women by 5-3 in the fourth match of the five match-test-series
The US national Women’s hockey team scored their first victory of the series as they defeated their Kiwis counterparts by 5-3 in the fourth match of the five-match-test series played at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Centre in California, USA on Friday,
September 9.
Having lost all of their previous three matches the US athletes played brilliantly throughout the entire match especially in the first thirty five minutes in which they made a triple blow to the New Zealanders whereas their opponents could not open their
account in the same period of time. The second half was controlled by the Kiwis as they have the ball possession for most of the time in the later part of the game where they scored three goals while the US women added further two goals to their total in the
same period.
Mark Hager, the coach of the Black Sticks Women, looked much disappointed with the performance of his athletes.
“We were down on the organisation of our defensive structures today. Our defence was disappointing and the USA really wanted the game more and was stronger on the one-on-one contests,” Mark Hager stated about the lapses in their defence during the game.
“The USA really stepped up their game today, they applied more pressure, we did not have the energy and we didn’t copy very well,” Greg Nicol, the assistant coach of the Black Sticks Women, too shared his views about the brilliant show by their opponents,
the US Women athletes.
The US women stated the first half perfectly as they opened their account midway in the first half when Michelle Kasold converted a beautiful build up pass from Torrie Albini into goal in the 17th minute. The US ladies continued with the same
pace till the end of the first half as they scored their second goal in the 31st minute when Katie Reinprecht doubled the lead just four minutes before the interval. The US ladies once again ticked the score board two minutes before the interval
when Paige Selenski tripled the lead in the 33rd minute.
However, in the second half the Black Sticks Women showed a much improved performance as compared to the first one.
“We came back much stronger into the second half scoring three goals, which gave us a chance; however, we had given them too much of lead to pull it back,” Greg Nicol further added to his comments.
The Kiwis scored their first goal in the 40th minute with Katie Glynn but US women further strengthened their lead in the minutes after the Kiwis’ goal. In the 48th minute Katie Glynn again scored but Katie O’Donnell once again was
the scorer for US as she made it 5-2. The Kiwis score their last goal in the later part of the second half and this time Krystal Forgesson was the scorer for the Kiwis.