U.S. Women’s Team Wins Holiday Cup

Call it a victory for North America.

That was the consensus Sunday night at the Los Alamitos Armed Forces Center after the U.S. women’s water polo team battled Canada to the wire for a 5-4 victory in the gold medal game at the Holiday Cup.

Brenda Villa of the United States broke out of a scoring slump with three goals, but the title wasn’t decided until Johanne Begin’s hole shot as time expired died in the water at the base of the left post and beyond the reach of U.S. goalie Nicolle Payne.

U.S. Coach Guy Baker down-played the meaning of the victory for his team specifically, choosing instead to cite the hemispheric importance of the final.

“It was exciting to have the two American teams playing each other,” he said. “Both teams will go into Sydney with confidence. Our continent definitely has hope of winning an Olympic medal.”

On the sixth consecutive day of competition, neither team looked sharp. The U.S. scored on five of its 25 shots. Canada made four of 23.

Payne, a surprise starter who had not played in a major world tournament final in more than a year, made 13 saves and was named the tournament’s top goalie. Coralie Simmons of the United States, who scored 13 goals in the tournament but missed all three of her shot attempts Sunday, was named the best offensive player.

Baker settled on a simple strategy of slowing Canada’s top two scorers, Cora Campbell and Begin. Campbell, named the outstanding defensive player of the tournament, was roughed up every time she went to the two-meter mark and managed only a second-period goal in three attempts before being ejected for getting her third foul with 3 minutes 11 seconds to play. Begin made three of 13 shots.

“They stuck big players on us,” Campbell said of the U.S defenders. “It was physically demanding. They basically exhausted me.”

Payne said she never felt good about the way the game was going offensively. Baker said that the U.S., which averaged more than 11 goals a game in its first five contests, may have become complacent about its ability to score.

“But the team has to find a way to win in different ways, and this gives us experience in close games,” Baker said.

Villa broke a 4-4 stalemate with her third goal from the four-meter mark with 2:37 left in the game and Payne came up with a one-on-one save of a shot by Marie-Luc Arpin 30 seconds later.

A lob by Marie-Claude Deslieres of Canada bounced off the crossbar with a minute to go, and the U.S. retained possession of the ball until the final seven seconds.

In other games:

Russia 10, Kazakhstan 6--Kazakhstan finished 0-6. Russia’s only two victories were against Kazakhstan.

Australia 5, Netherlands 4--The Aussies (4-2) were the pre-Olympic favorite, but they almost blew a two-goal lead in the last three minutes by allowing the Netherlands (2-4) two penalty shots.