Teammates in college, rivals in the Universiade. It happened to Matilda Kearns (Australia) and Bayley Weber (USA), both coming from Los Angeles’ University of Southern California, facing each other in today’s match between Australia and Unites States, which was won by the Aussies with a score of 11-9. “The team’s performance was excellent – says Kearns in the mixed zone – We had a very good start, with a good rhythm that we kept during the whole match. Sometimes they tried to come closer, but we managed in keeping the advantage. As for the quarter final against Hungary? I think that we can defeat them. Here every team can be beaten if we play at the level we are used to. The competition during the round phase helped us in being ready against any team we may face in the quarter and semi-finals. Therefore, I think that the training for the match against Hungary will not change significantly, it will be just a little more specific. Tomorrow we have a day off, we will try to relax: coach Damjanovic cares about our energy recovery, but surely my thoughts will be focused on the match.”
Bayley Weber’s team USA, on the other hand, has to win the eight-final against Czech Republic in order to gain access to quarters (editor’s note: a possible match against Canada): “We have to defeat capable teams in order to reach the semi-finals, but we still have a chance to achieve a medal. We must not feel disappointed by this defeat. We had many possibilities to do better in this round, but we did not take advantage of all the chances we had in the offense. I am sure that if we do our best, we will go far”.
