By Special to the Town Crier
Stanford University will be the third stop on the United States Women’s National Water Polo Team’s four-game exhibition series against the Australian Women’s National Team.
The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Friday, at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. Tickets, available at the gate, are $10.
The International Challenge Series features the two best women’s water polo teams in the world. The U.S. won the silver medal and Australia the gold at last year’s Olympic Games in Sydney.
The exhibition series is a rematch of the 2000 Olympic gold medal game that was played in Sydney, Australia. With most of the U.S. team still intact, the women aim to avenge their controversial overtime loss to Australia in the Olympics.
The U.S. is led by Coralie Simmons, Brenda Villa, Erika Lorenz and Robin Beauregard, who together combined for 30 Olympic goals. The defensive end is anchored by the strong goal keeping of Bernice Orwig and Nicole Payne.
The U.S. Women are coached by Guy Baker, the first person to guide a U.S. women’s team through an Olympic bracket and onto a silver medal. In 2000, “Baker’s Dozen” made it to the championship game of every major tournament it played in. Before Baker’s arrival, the team was ranked No. 8 in the world and was not expected to medal in Australia.
“The week of competition against Australia will prepare our team for the World Championships,” Baker said. “The games against Australia will be very competitive, especially since the Australians seem to have a number of new players listed on their roster.”
Australia has a different look this summer. Nearly half of the players from the gold medal team have retired or are taking the season off. However, coach Istvan Gyorgeny has no intention of making 2001 a rebuilding year. Instead, he will reload with a group of Junior National Players that won the FINA World Championship in 1999, in addition to Olympic stars Yvette Higgins and Liz Weekes.
The final game of national team exhibitions will be played at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, at the Spieker Aquatic Complex at the University of California at Berkeley.
