Under-21 USA women clinch three-match hockey series against Germany
The Under-21 Women’s field hockey team of USA emerged victorious in the three-match Test series against Germany by an impressive 2-1 win.
The USA team, after facing a humiliating defeat in the opening match, revved it up and won the next two games. In the second game, it powered five goals against the solitary point of their rivals, while edged past Germany in the final game by a one goal
difference, 3-2.
First Match
In the first game, the German women overpowered the visiting team by 4-2 and established their dominance in the series. However, they could not retain their momentum and lost in the hands of visitors in the next two contests.
Second Match
Germany in the second fixture started the game in quite an offensive way and scored first goal in the 12th minute of the game. But it was responded by a field effort in the 19th minute to tie the knots. The custodian of USA team, AAlesha
Widdall displayed an excellent performance and denied several efforts from the German side. The speed of the game further increased, when Maxine Fluharty successfully deflected a cross-stick shot and obtained the lead for USA.
With five minutes into the second half, Kat Sharkey of USA, while converting a pass from Jill Witmer increased the lead up to two goals. She found herself alone in front of the posts and hit a powerful drive right into the goal-post. In the later time, Kay
Sharkey scored her second goal of the day, while her team-mate, Ali McEvoy, expanded the lead to four goals. The defenders of USA could not allow the German players to scorer any other goal.
Third Match
In the last contest of the three-match series, the German girls opened the scoring through a goal in the very first minutes of the game. However, the players of USA were not sitting idle, as Maxine Fluharty scored her second goal of the series and tied the
knots.
In the later time period, Laura Gebhart doubled the tally, when she hit a classic drive and posted the ball through the German goal. But Germans were not ready to give up. They fought back and scored a goal in the 34th minute of the match to tie
the knots.
An end-to-end play was observed in the second half, where both teams were struggling to get a go-ahead goal. With six minutes left on the clock, Kelsey Kolojejchick punched a goal on a penalty-corner to break the tie-up. The Germans played most striking
game in the last five minutes to level the score, but failed to do so. But the resilient defence of USA could not allow them in this regard. Germany with the final horn of the time completion earned victory in the game and as well the series.
USA Coach, Ainslee Lamb
Ainslee Lamb, the USA team coach, while talking to the media said, “They had a purpose and plan and they stuck with it. We saw growth in each game. Our second game versus the Germans, we showed our offensive potential and our last game, we showed a great
balance with offensive opportunities and defensive structure.”
The American girls adopted wonderful approaches from the very first day and never missed their point of focus at any occasion in the game.
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