U.S. Sinks Netherlands, Soars Into Today’s Final

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

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

It set up an all-North American final at 7 tonight against Canada, another team that didn’t figure to make this much noise when qualifying for the Sydney Olympics began more than a year ago. Canada beat Russia, 8-6, Saturday. “This event will give us confidence going into the Olympics, confidence we didn’t have before,” U.S. Coach Guy Baker said. “We’re happy with our performance, but we’re not going to get carried away with it. It’s been a good tournament for us so far, but if we lose to Canada, then we won’t look at it as that good of a tournament.”

The third-place game at 5:30 p.m. pits the Netherlands (2-3) against Australia (3-2).

The United States (5-0) has swept past the other five Olympic hopefuls, including Canada (4-1), with a combination of power and teamwork. The team appears to gain confidence every time it jumps in the pool.

Poise may be the only thing left for the youthful U.S. team to work on. The Americans held a 7-3 halftime advantage Saturday, but the Netherlands cut the lead to 7-6 when the U.S. became impatient.

It took the leadership of 39-year-old veteran Maureen O’Toole, who scored three goals, to get the U.S. back on track.

Baker inserted O’Toole into the game with two minutes to go in the third quarter and the U.S. clinging to that one-goal lead. As she took her defensive position in the two-meter area, O’Toole could be heard urging her teammates to “be patient.”

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

O’Toole’s third goal with 5:59 left in the game 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 Americans won the final Olympic slot. Still stinging from that defeat, the U.S. players say that Tuesday’s 12-9 victory in the opening round of the Holiday Cup wasn’t enough.

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

Canada’s Johanne Begin said her team won’t approach today’s final that way.

“Our biggest rival is Russia,” she said.

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Women’s Water Polo

* What: Holiday Cup

* When: Today

* Where: USA Water Polo National Aquatic Center, on the Joint Forces Training Base, 11200 Lexington Drive, Los Alamitos

* Basics: Tournament features all six teams that will compete in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, including the current world champion, Australia, 1999 World Cup champion the Netherlands, Pan American Games champion Canada, Asian champion Kazakhstan and the two entrants from the World Olympic Qualification tournament, Russia and the United States.

* Today’s schedule: 4 p.m.--Fifth place, Russia vs. Kazakhstan; 5:30--Third place, Australia vs. the Netherlands; 7--Championship, U.S. vs. Canada.

* Tickets: $12 for adults, $8 for students.

* Website: https://www.holidaycup.com

* Information: City of Los Alamitos, Recreation and Community Services Dept., (562) 430-1073