T&T women’s hockey team will play for fifth place at the 2022 Women’s Pan American Cup, after falling to a huge 11-0 defeat to Chile on Tuesday at the Prince of Wales Country Club, La Reina, Santiago, Chile.
The "Calypso Stickwomen" led by Avion Ashton were pushed back into their half for most of the match which the Chileans capitalised on as early as the seventh minute. A failed clearance by Saarah Olton saw an unmarked Mariana Lagos score off a rebound from goalkeeper Arresia Sandy’s pads.
Three minutes later, Fernanda Arrieta made it 2-0 also from close-range, to net the first of two goals before Denise Krimerman Losada dragged home a penalty-corner set play for a 3-0 cushion in the 14th minute.
The second quarter saw a much more concentrated effort from the T&T women and while they didn’t threaten much on attack, the defence only conceded one goal from Consuelo De Las Heras in the 26th minute to trail 4-0 at the half-time interval.
However, the resistance from the Anthony Marcano-coached T&T women faded somewhat in the third session as his team's deficit grew to seven thanks to goals from Manuela Urroz in the 32nd, Francisca Tala (34th) and Sofia Filipek (43rd).
There wasn't much improvement from T&T defensively as Chile continued to attack and were rewarded with fourth more goals from Arrieta (50th), Maria Maldonado (51st), Losada (58th) and Urroz (59th), respectively.
Following the match, captain Ashton said: "The game was difficult. We expected it to be difficult. We worked hard and throughout the game, we started to make mistakes and we paid for the mistakes. We played better than the previous games."
The "Calypso Stickwomen" will meet Uruguay on Thursday from 12.30 pm to compete for the fifth spot. This was after the Uruguayans were defeated by Canada in a 3-0 penalty shootout after the match ended tied 1-1.
Ashton looking ahead said: "So we also expect that to be another difficult game we hope to continue to play better and better and when we get chances to put them away. We hope to score and keep our defence tight and play a much better game."
The loss was the third in four matches for T&T after being beaten by USA 16-0 and Canada 13-0. The "Calypso Stickwomen" only had success against Peru, 2-0 to end in third place in their round-robin pool.
For the Chileans, it was the second win in three-match, losing 4-0 by Argentina in their Pool A opener but bounced back to defeat Uruguay by the same margin of victory to claim the second spot in the pool.
This is the fourth appearance for T&T at the Pan American Cup, with the first
The first was in 2004 in Barbados when they ended eighth, and then in 2009 when they placed fourth in Bermuda, and four years later when they ended seventh in Argentina.
In the semifinals, tomorrow (on Thursday), Pool winner and five-time champion Argentina faces Canada from 3 pm followed by Chile and Pool B winner, the USA. from 5.30 pm.
Both semifinal winners and eventual tournament third-placed finisher will qualify to the 2022 Women's FIH Hockey World Cup carded for Terrassa, Spain, and Amstelveen, the Netherlands from July 1-17.
Yesterday's results
T&T 0 vs Chile 11 (Mariana Lagos 7th, Fernanda Arrieta 10th, 50th, Denise Krimerman Losada 14th, 58th, Consuelo de las Heras 26th, Manuela Urroz 32nd, 59th, Francisca Tala 34th, Sofia Filipek 43rd, Maria Maldonado 51st).
Canada 1 (Elise Wong 9th) vs Uruguay 1 (Teresa Viana 10th). Canada won 3-0 via a penalty shootout.
