US Women defeat New Zealand in fourth of five-match series: 5-3 – Hockey Update
Paige Selenski and Katie Reinprecht scored two goals and each had an assist, as the Women’s hockey team of United States displayed an outstanding performance and won the fourth test of the five match series that took place at the Chula Vista Olympic Training
Centre in California on September 9.
It was an enormous shock for the New Zealand team who won the first three matches of the series consecutively and took the series to their name. The Americans were completely looking like a different squad as compared to the past three games.
The results made New Zealand’s Coach Mark Hager quite disappointed who was looking to whitewash the Americans. While talking to the journalists, Hager was of the opinion that they were defeated owing to their defensive loopholes. He said, “Our defence was
disappointing and the USA really wanted the game more and was stronger on the one-on-one contests.”
Greg Nicol, the Assistant Coach of the Black Sticks Women was of the opinion that the Americans had improved their game and established their supremacy in the first half of play. He added, “The USA really stepped up their game today, they applied more pressure,
we didn’t have the energy and we didn’t copy very well. We came back much stronger into the second half scoring three goals, which gave us a chance; however, we had given them too much of lead to pull it back.”
At the start of the match the women from the two sides were playing very confidently. However, the home team started to establish their domination over the field with the passage of time. In the 9th minute New Zealand’s Cathryn Finlayson was awarded
a green card. The US team received their first short corner in the 11th minute but to no avail.
With the passage of time, the US team started increasing their pace and accomplished back-to-back strikes against New Zealand. Michelle Kasold received a crucial pass from Albini at the right flank and without wasting any time she slammed it into the cage
in the 17th minute of the mark. Later in the half, Katie Reinprecht and Paige Selenski scored one goal each in the 31st and 33rd minutes and closed out the half at 3-0.
From the other side, Katie Glynn and Krystal Forgesson notched two and one goal respectively and attempted to make their entry into the play. However, luck was not with them. Reinprecht and Selenski added one goal each and sealed the victory for the Americans
for the first time in the last four games at 5-3.
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