Canadians shock USA in water polo
By John Pye
Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — U.S. goalkeeper Jackie Frank dipped under water to think. She resurfaced wondering if the blur of the previous six minutes really happened.
Associated Press
It did.
U.S. goalkeeper Jacqueline Frank was stunned after Canada scored five goals in the final 5 1/2 minutes. "What just happened?" Frank said.
Canada fired five unanswered goals past Frank in the last 5 1/2 minutes to edge the world champion Americans, 6-5, yesterday in an Olympic water polo shocker.
"I thought, 'Wow! What just happened?"' Frank said.
Losing was bad enough. The way it happened was unprecedented for the United States.
"From 5-1, no, we've never lost from there," said captain Heather Moody, a U.S. representative since 1996. "It's hard, but it's the Olympics and that's the way it works — it happens."
Moody is one of seven players on the squad who won silver in Sydney. The Americans lost twice in that tournament, both to Australia; first in the preliminaries, then 4-3 in the final.
The Americans have become the dominant team since then, earning the No. 1 ranking by winning seven of the past eight tournaments. They came into the Athens Games as the favorites and opened with a 7-6 win against the Hungarians.
Canada hadn't beaten the United States in more than a year. America's advantage seemed likely to continue through three periods yesterday.
Rookie Kelly Rulon, who scored two goals against Hungary on Monday, scored the only point of the first half against Canada. Then Margaret Dingeldein, Ericka Lorenz and Robin Beauregard scored to make it 4-0 until five seconds from three-quarter time, when Johanne Begin scored the first of her three goals in a 6-on-5 situation.
Moody restored the four-point buffer with a goal a minute into the last period. Then, it was all Canada.
Captain Ann Dow's penalty throw with 5:36 remaining sparked the scoring spree.
"It shocked them," Dow said. "From then, I had such energy and intensity inside that I had to let it out, and all my teammates felt the same."
Begin scored again and Cora Campbell finished off a counter attack as Canada pulled within one point. Dow scored her second to tie it and Begin fired in the winner with 50 seconds to go.
"We showed that we can be up there with the best team in the world — we are one of the best teams in the world," said Dow, on the verge of tears.
Canada's Marie-Luc Arpin, a University of Hawai'i alum, took four shots, but didn't score yesterday.
LOCAL TIES
Tania (Brunton) Tupu played 19 minutes and didn't score in New Zealand's 91-57 loss to Spain in women's basketball yesterday. Tupu had one defensive rebound. Spain is 3-0, New Zealand 0-3.
