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USA Claims Third Place at Holiday Cup With 17-7 Defeat of Russia
By Greg Mescall // United States Water Polo // December 11, 2007
USA easily took third place at the 9th Holiday Cup as they ran past Russia 17-7. While it signals the end of six straight titles at the Holiday Cup for the USA it was still a positive ending to the tourney. USA moved out to a 4-2 lead at the end of the first and then went up 8-3 at halftime as their lead grew exponentially. In the third quarter they really turned things on and blew the game open as they ballooned their lead to 14-5 as played move to the fourth. In the fourth not much changed as they won going away at 17-7.
Jessica Steffens led a parade of scorers with three goals while Jamie Hipp and Betsey Armstrong split time in net with Hipp picking up 8 saves and Armstrong taking 6 saves. USA now has some downtime before they resume action after the New Year with some common training with Canada in late January.
Flash Quotes:
"Russia didn't seem to be playing as hard and maybe we were playing a little better. I thought we had a real good game offensively. 17 goals is about 10 more than we usually get and we ended the tourney on a good note. We got a good idea of what we need to start working on." Guy Baker, Head Coach - USA
Box Score
USA
4
3
6
3
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17
RUSSIA
2
1
2
2
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7
Individual Scoring
USA
J. Steffens 3, E. Figge 2, L. Wenger 2, P. Cardenas 2, M. van Norman 2, B. Villa 2, A. Gregorka 1, K Craig 1, N. Golda 1, B. Hayes 1
RUSSIA
A. Vylegzhanina 2, Y. Gaufler 2, E. Pantyulina 2, O. Belyaeva 1
Goal Saves
USA
J. Hipp 8, B. Armstrong 6
RUSSIA
E. Protsenko 1, V. Vorontsova 4
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