U.S. to Play Canada in Holiday Cup Final

With every success at the Holiday Cup tournament, the U.S. women’s water polo team’s stock keeps rising.

On Saturday it was a balanced 11-9 victory over defending world champion the Netherlands at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Center before a crowd of 1,500.

That set up an all-North American final tonight at 7 against Canada, another team that didn’t figure to make this much noise when all the hoopla over the Sydney Olympics began with qualifying more than a year ago. Canada beat Russia, 8-6, Saturday.

The U.S. has gone 5-0 in this tournament with a combination of power and teamwork--and appears to be gaining more confidence with each match.

Poise may be the only thing left for the youthful U.S. players to work on. The U.S. had a 7-3 halftime advantage which the Netherlands cut to 7-6 when the U.S. became impatient.

It took the leadership of Maureen O’Toole, who scored three goals, to get the U.S. back on track.

O’Toole, 39, was inserted into the match with two minutes to go in the third period and the U.S. clinging to that one-goal lead.

The U.S. got a stop and at the other end of the pool O’Toole took a pass from Brenda Villa and bounced a shot off the left inside post for a momentum-changing goal.

O’Toole’s third goal with 5:59 left in the match made it 10-7 and the U.S. was firmly in control.

“Everyone on this team has a role and one of mine is leadership,” O’Toole said. “If everyone plays with patience we are going to be successful.”

That wasn’t the case a year ago at an Olympic qualifying tournament hosted by Canada. Canada beat the U.S. and relegated it to two more qualifying tournaments before the U.S. got the final Olympic slot. Still stinging from that defeat, the U.S. players say that Tuesday’s 12-9 victory over Canada--its only loss in five Holiday Cup matches--wasn’t enough.

“They are definitely the rival to the U.S., no doubt about it,” O’Toole said.