[Sportsandrec] FW: USA Women's Goalball Team Finds Gold in Finland

[Christella Garcia]

  _____  

From: United States Association of Blind Athletes [mailto:etap at usaba.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 4:28 PM
To: Christella Garcia
Subject: USA Women's Goalball Team Finds Gold in Finland


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USA Women's Goalball Team Finds Gold in Finland
 
Coming from behind in a stunning gold-medal match that was decided by a
shootout, the USA Women's National Goalball team emerged as champions of the
2010 Onnela Goalball Tournament held 23-24 January in Onnela, Finland.
 
Team USA opened their tournament play against the host Finnish team.  USA
built an early 5-2 lead behind two goals apiece from Miller and Czechowski.
Although Finland challenged USA center Nicki Buck (Kalamazoo, MI) and
produced a pair of comeback goals, Team USA held on for a 5-4 victory.
USA's next pool match was against the current European Champion, Great
Britain.   Both teams scored a goal early and remained in a 1-1 deadlock for
most of the first half.  With four seconds left in the half, Great Britain's
Emily Luke powered in one of her tournament leading scores resulting in a
2-1 Great Britain lead at the halftime buzzer.   Midway in the second half,
Theryoung converted a penalty shot tying the score, and Czechowski hit the
game winner with 57 seconds left in the game: final score, team USA 3-2 over
Great Britain.   In a 4-2 loss to Sweden, Miller scored on the first throw
of the game only to be countered by Sweden's Malia Gustovasen's first throw.
Sweden went ahead midway through the half and Miller tied it at 2-2 shortly
before halftime.  USA couldn't penetrate the rock-solid Sweden defense in
the second half, while Sweden converted a penalty shot and Gustovasen added
to the scoring tally, resulting leading to a 4-2 Sweden victory.  The last
pool game was against Greece.  Jordan Walters (Boulder, CO) gave a strong
defensive effort contributing to a 2-0 USA victory.  Jackie Barnes
(Wadsorth, IL) scored at the six minute mark of the first half and Theryoung
added a second half goal.
 
The ladies avenged their only pool play loss to a strong Swedish team with a
thrilling shootout victory.  Trailing the Swedes midway through the second
half of the game Asya Miller (Birmingham, AL) scored her third goal of the
game, tying the score at 3-3,  and keeping Team USA's chance alive for a
gold medal in overtime play.  As the game progressed to a shootout, Miller
and teammates Lisa Czechowski (Tucson, AZ) and Robin Theryoung (Colorado
Springs, CO) scored goals while Walters made a key defensive stop against
the number one Swedish scorer Malia Gustovasen, sealing the victory and the
gold medal.
 
After two upcoming training camps, the next competition will be the Lady
Malmo Cup (Malmo, Sweden) where USA are the defending champions.
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