WATER POLO: USA Women's Senior National Team And Canada Battle To 10-10 Draw

Brenda Villa and Patty Cardenas returned to their hometown at the Commerce Aquatics Center in Commerce, CA and combined for five goals but it was not enough to upend Canada as the exhibition contest ended in a 10-10 tie. The game was the second of three exhibition contests against Canada with the series concluding Thursday evening at the USA Water Polo National Training Center in Los Alamitos, CA This contest was kicked off by Villa who turned a Moriah van Norman drawn exclusion into a score and USA was in front 1-0. Van Norman wasn't done drawing exclusions as she got another Canadian kicked out which led to a tally of her own and coming on the heels of a Canada goal it was USA up 2-1. This early back and forth would serve as foreshadowing for a game that see-sawed the entire way. Canada came back from the 2-1 deficit by first tying the score and then taking the lead with just one second remaining in the period as Christine Robinson bombed one in from mid-tank to garner a 3-2 lead headed to the second. In the second two-time Olympian Heather Petri ripped the net to tie the score at 3-3 and then Natalie Golda found the corner to give USA a 4-3 advantage. That was short-lived as Team USA was pegged for a five meter penalty at around the 5-minute mark which led to a Canada score. Again Canada was able to come up late as they tallied a score with 27 seconds left in the second quarter to build a 5-4 advantage at intermission. Into the third the two squads traded scores the last coming off the hands of Brenda Villa, her third goal of the night to even the ledger at 7-7 with playing moving to the fourth. The Canadians would try and deliver the knockout blow getting out to a two goal lead at 9-7 with just under six minutes left in the final quarter. Team USA responded with an offensive outburst rolling off three straight goals the last coming from Villa to regain the lead at 10-9. This one appeared to be in the bag but again Canada with their timely scoring came through in the clutch as Joelle Bekhazi lit the proverbial lamp with just 2.4 seconds remaining to force the draw and the final score of 10-10. Notes: Brenda Villa led all scorers with four goals. Villa and Cardenas both played club water polo for Commerce during their formative years. Lauren Wenger did not play due to injury. Flash Quotes: "We have to thank Guy Baker and USA Water Polo for inviting us. This is great for us as a team and we wish them all the luck at the Olympics and we really appreciate this." Patrick Oaten - Head Coach, Canada "We saw some mistakes last night and we made some adjustments. We worked on specifics and its a process. I thought when USA went down two Brenda (Villa) showed some great leadership to bring them back and had alot of poise." Patrick Oaten - Head Coach, Canada (On failing to qualify for the 2008 Olympics) "We've made our bed and we'll sleep in it, we have to deal with it. That said we are gonna try and give every team we play a good game." Patrick Oaten - Head Coach, Canada "Hard to find positives, we were down by two, then we take a one goal lead, we need just one good stop, and we allow a wide open shot that goes in. Give credit to Canada, they did a good job, they come in here and play hard and really push us." Guy Baker - Head Coach, USA "I think we started out well and then we kind of played in spurts. We need to start to pick up our play and need to see some progress, we are reaching a point where we should make progress and at this point in time I'm pretty disappointed." Guy Baker - Head Coach, USA Scoring: USA: 10 (B. Villa 4, H. Petri 1, N. Golda 1, P. Cardenas 1, J. Steffens 1, M. van Norman 1, B. Hayes 1) CAN: 10 (J. Bekhazi 2, E. Csikos 2, D. Perreault 2, C. Robinson 1, J. Crook 1, K. Alogbo 1, R. Tomiuk 1)