Australia's women's water polo players have beaten China 5-3 to set up a mouth-watering tournament final against the USA at the FINA World League Super Final in Shanghai.
The Stingers turned in a solid defensive performance on Saturday night, underpinned by goalkeeper Lea Yanitsas, who withstood the Chinese attack to maintain no less than a two-goal buffer throughout.
Assistant coach Dalibor Maslan highlighted the strong start of the Australians as the key to victory, saying that the result was pleasing in light of the shallow bench of reserves available due to injury.
"It was a very low scoring game, we came out very hard in the first quarter and had strong 4-1 lead at half time. However China came out firing after that, and we could manage just one goal," Maslan said.
"It was pretty tough going out there, especially with just three players on the bench."
In the earlier semi-final the USA accounted for the Netherlands 8-5 to make Sunday' gold medal a game a re-match of the final of May's FINA World League Intercontinental tournament, won by the USA 12-10 during a penalty shootout.
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