Australia's women's hockey team have ended a disappointing World League finals campaign with a loss to the Netherlands to finish sixth.
The world No.2 Hockeyroos went down 1-0 to the top-ranked Dutch on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) in the Argentinian city of Rosario in a match delayed during the second half due to lightning.
Lidewij Welten's 42nd-minute rebound goal that came following a save from Hockeyroos goalkeeper Rachael Lynch proved the difference.
The clash was soon after delayed for 11 minutes as dangerous lightning set in over the Estadio Mundialista de hockey stadium, but when play resumed Australia couldn't crack the Dutch defence.
Despite the defeat, which came two days after a surprise quarter-final loss to Germany, Hockeyroos coach Adam Commens was happy that he got to expose plenty Rio Olympics aspirants to top-level international competition.
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An Olympic training squad will be announced later this month and they'll come together in Perth in early January.
"This was one of our best performances of the tournament," said Commens.
"We really created a lot of chances against the Dutch, it was probably the best we have played against them and we were unlucky to not get a result.
"We have exposed a number of new players throughout this year and what we saw today was that our players are well and truly up to this level.
"We now have a much better idea about the players that we would like to have in that squad (for the Rio Olympics)."
New Zealand made it through to the final with a 2-1 victory over Germany while China and hosts Argentina were set to face off in the other semi-final.
