Hungary still unbeaten in water polo

Press, 25 August 1988, Page 38

Hungary still unbeaten in water polo

By

GARY BIRKETT

Hungary staved off a strong last quarter challenge from Australia to stay unbeaten in the fifth F.LN.A. women’s world cup water polo tournament at Queen Elizabeth II Park pool yesterday.

Hungary beat the defending champion, 10-8, in its third game and has now joined Holland and Australia as the most likely side to win the competition. Hungary dominated the first three quarters to lead, 7-4, entering the final 7 minutes, but Australia, which had struggled against a tight Hungarian defence, stormed bacn in the last, quarter.

It drew level at 7-7 with a penalty shot with 4 minutes left but Hungary refused to be rattled and goals by Alice Kertesz, Ernst Agnes Silligne and Edit Raffael pushed it to a 10-7 lead and Australia could only muster one more strike.

The Hungarians reacted joyfully to their victory, kissing and embracing at the pool side, and will be hoping for a similar result against Holland in a vital match today.

Holland made its two wins from two games by overwhelming Puerto Rico, 41-1. Eleven of the 13-mem-ber Dutch squad scored

goals, Alice Lindhout leading the way with nine. New Zealand could not retain its almighty high from Tuesday when it played magnificently but lost to the all-conquering Hungarians — going down quite convincingly 5-18 to Canada last evening. The home side looked confident of holding the Canadians, if not beating them, but the pressure told, luck went out the door and the game was lost.

The coach, Richard Clark, said he could not expect the women to maintain Tuesday’s standard.

“It’s so hard to maintain a high three days in a row.

“Our inexperience told. I told the girls before the tournament it would be full of highs and lows. “Today was a low,” he said.

Canada shot quickly to a 3-0 lead but slowed, leading 4-1 at the quarter.

New Zealand held the Canadians to 2-3 in the second quarter, bringing hope to the team and large crowd alike.

However, Canada steamrolled the Kiwis in the third quarter, netting six times and further inflicting injury to the home team’s pride with a 5-2 margin in the final quarter. Scorers:—

Hungary 10 (Andrea Eke 5, Edit Raddael 3, Ernst Agnes Silligne, Alice Kertesz) bt Australia 8 (Amanda. Leeson 2, Julie Rohl, Debbie Watson, Debbie Cummings, Jacqueline Northam, Kylie Podmore, Janet Rayner). Holland 41 (Alice Lindhout 9, Hedda Vervam 6, Lien Eke van der Heuvel 6, Irma Brander 5, Janny Spjker, Anitra Bibo, Lillian Ossendrijver all 3; Gret Vo Veen, Anita Nijenhuis both 2; Patricia Libregts, Monique Kranenburg both 1) bt Puerto Rico 1 (Marines Garcia). Canada 18 (M. Deslieres 4, P. Deslieres 3, R. Lafrance 3, M. Nickless 3, K. Schweitzar, G. Brunetta, C. Boisclair, H. Kaulbach, M. Thorington) bt New Zealand 5 (L. Mazzoleni, M. Hesketh, N. Ashmore, N. Chambers, T. Neil). Points table:

P W L F A Pt Hungary 3 3 0 32145 6 Holland 2 2 0 51 5 4 Canada 3 2 1 38 23 4 Aust. 2 1 y t 3311 2 N.Z. 3 1 2 27 36 2 U.S. 2 0 2 12 21 0 P.R. 3 0 3 8 82 0