Women advance to medal round at Worlds

Rome - The USA Women's Senior National Team assured themselves of a chance to play for a medal for the 10^th consecutive time at a major FINA event with a 9-6 defeat of Spain earlier tonight at the FINA World Championships. With the victory the team advances to play Greece on Wednesday, the two teams met in group play with the United States claiming a 12-8 victory.

A slow first quarter plagued Team USA in this match as Spain opened up an early advantage. Brittany Hayes (Santa Ana, CA/USC) scored the first goal of the match for the United States on a tally at the 6:10 mark for a 1-0 USA lead. However, it was Spain answering with three consecutive goals to take a 3-1 advantage with 1:46 left in the opening frame. Hayes found the cage again putting the breaks on a counter attack and lobbing one home with 43 seconds left for a 3-2 deficit headed to the second.

In the second quarter it was all Team USA as they shutdown the Spain offense. From there the USA offense took over as Hayes scored again on a power play, her third of the night, with 3:36 left in the period for a tie game at 3-3. A few moments later Heather Petri (Orinda, CA/California) painted the left corner for a USA lead at 4-3 with 1:51 left. Then with just 36 seconds remaining in the half it was Petri again this time skipping one home on the near side for a 5-3 lead going into halftime.

The offense-defense combo kept it up in the third quarter as Brenda Villa (Commerce, CA/Stanford) tossed one in from downtown for a 6-3 lead just 25 seconds into the period. On the next Spain possession the United States was whistled for a penalty only to see goalie Betsey Armstrong (Ann Arbor, MI/Michigan) swat the attempt away.

With the lead preserved at three, the United States looked to add when Lauren Wenger (Long Beach, CA/USC) used a player advantage and a patient fake to beat the goalkeeper and raise the lead to 7-3. At the 6:01 mark the Spanish squad got another opportunity at a five meter penalty only to watch Armstrong stretch out and tip away the attempt. The two squads would go scoreless over the next several moments until Spain closed out the period with a man-up goal at the 1:58 mark for a 7-4 game to end the third.

In the fourth the USA offense kept up the momentum when Jessica Steffens (Danville, CA/Stanford) lobbed a shot to the left side for an 8-4 lead. Over the next four minutes Spain would look to rally with consecutive goals to close within two at 8-6 with 2:51 remaining. That was short-lived as Alison Gregorka (Ann Arbor, MI/Stanford) delivered the game-breaker on a player advantage with just 2:15 remaining in the contest. With the Gregorka goal the USA went up 9-6. Spain had one last gasp on a power play with 1:38 remaining but their attempt was foiled by the USA who came away winners at 9-6.

Hayes led the team with three goals on the night while Armstrong was superb in net impounding six Spanish shots. Both teams struggled on penalty shots with Spain shooting 0/2 and the United States going 0/1. On the power play the United States turned in a 4/6 performance while Spain was 2/8.

With the win the USA women have now made every medal round since the 2000 Olympic Games. This includes 10 major FINA Championships including Olympic Games, World Championships, and World Cups. Greece, their opponent on Wednesday, is making their first medal round appearance.

At the conclusion of Monday's action the final four of the World Championships were set. Joining the United States and Greece are Canada and Russia. Only the United States remains from the final four a year ago in Beijing, China.