We woke up, still a little disappointed from the previous day's result against Colombia.  We were weary and our legs still tired as we made our final ascent up the stairs to the kitchen for breakfast.  We couldn't let that affect our final game.  We wanted to go out with a bang.  Of all the teams, the one we know best Canada.  We have played against them more than any other country.  Many of these ladies have been our friends and mentors over the years, but we still wanted to finish the tournament with a positive note.  We were excited to show what we could do in this North American showdown.

After our pre-game routine and warm up, we came out strong at the beginning of the game. We started swinging the puck early on, and made it to Canada’s end of the pool quite quickly. After a few minutes of play in the open pool, Tyera and Kim swam the puck into our offensive corner. We drove the puck at their goal over and over again, but they barely saved it each time. We were really close to their goal for the rest of the half, but never quite got it into the trough. At half time the score was still 0-0.

The second half both teams started hard. Canada began to play more in the open, but we were ready and shut down all of their runs up the middle. Canada pushed the puck into our end of the pool but they were stopped short by Tyera, who found an opening and swam it to the wall right in front of our sub box, allowing us to bring in a useful set of fresh players. Kim subbed in and drove the puck almost all the way to our offensive corner.  The battle continued until Ianna launched a monster pass into the goal! Breathing a bit easier we headed back to the wall, knowing that we were starting to wear them down.

Off the strike we drove it into Canada’s end of the pool pretty quickly. There were multiple swings done by both teams. This apparently tired out the Canadians because Tyera, after a hard drive up the wall, swam around half their team and scored us another goal! The next strike did not go as smoothly as the past few and the play ended up in our end. It was a bit scary for a while! We were tangled up in front of our goal when a Canadian shot the puck, missing our goal by a couple feet. Luckily the person there was Tyera, who swam the puck a safe distance away from our goal. After that we worked our way up the side wall and reached the offensive corner again. Eventually a Canadian tried to clear the puck across the goal, and it almost worked, except Katrina smashed the puck back towards the goal under the Canadian player. Bryna was there, ready for the pass and shoved the puck into the goal. Now the score was 3-0, with just a minute left in the game. Canada got us hard on the last strike, trying to get at least one goal in. We contained it well, and the game ended with no more goals. The entire team felt great! It was good to win a game after the disappointment of the day before. We finished 7th place overall!

You can re-watch the game here: https://youtu.be/9gnqkmh0sUY

Overall, this world championships was all that we could have asked for despite placing lower than we would have liked.  We improved and learned a lot as a team throughout this process. Since the last world championships in 2016 in South Africa, many of us have trained harder to try do better than the competition, but the competition did as well.  Each time we come to a world championships, we are a little better than the last time, but so is our competition.  We are humbled by the increasing level of play at the world championships.  That is why we play the sport, for these moments of heartbreak and exuberance, we are just hoping for a little more exuberance the next time.

We want to thank all of our family, friends, supporters and the world wide hockey community.    This sport has allowed us to compete at a high level while also making friends all over the world.  Thank you to Navisjon for helping improve the quality of video to help spread UWH, the video streaming was incredible this year.  If you enjoyed the free streaming, don't forget to donate here, to help continue to improve the quality of video.  

Thanks again, and until next time!

-Team USA Women Elite

We started the day in high spirits, ready for what we knew would be a hard battle against Colombia. The winner would continue to the top four playoffs and the loser would be stuck in the bottom five through eight. And the loser would have to play another game later that day… Wanting to avoid both, we set out to win. 

​We arrived at the pool and jumped straight into our warmup and apnea table. We marched into the locker room blaring our music and hoping to intimidate. The swim warmup went well, and we were totally prepared to jump in and win!

It was silent in the stands when the buzzer went off.  We had a huge cheering section that was ready to get going. The Colombians came out hard, pushing us into our half. We pushed it out to the wall and kicked hard, getting clear and out of the danger zone.

The entire first half both teams swam a lot and the puck ricocheted up and down the pool. The Colombians played a very strong game, getting some really solid pushes and driving as a solid mass of bodies. They mostly played a clean game, really using their own skills more than petty fouls. The refs were good, making fair calls and missing very little.

The Colombians did some really strong drives but the defensive players did and amazing job swinging it out of the middle and out around their driving players. The forwards were always there ready for a pass or ready to help disrupt their back passes. Both teams were playing well, making it a really fun game of hockey. It was a bit stressful though! 

Eight minutes left in the half; coach Phil called a timeout to give everyone a chance to breathe and get usual focused again.  Starting again, we pulled off a great swing and swam up into their half. We kept it up there for the next few minutes, never quite getting it into the trough. 

After a few fouls BAM got kicked out for a stick foul. We kept it out of the goal until BAM hopped into the pool again, scooped up a forward pass, and drove it all the way up the wall. Shortly before the corner we broke it off the wall, and Kim finally slammed it into the goal, seconds before the half ended. 

We were full of energy at half time, adrenaline running through our veins. We knew they would come out hard, and sure enough they again pushed the puck into our half right off the bat. Once again our defense was strong and we kept the Colombians out of the goal despite quite a few disadvantage pucks in front of our goal. With just under three minutes left in the half the Colombians squeaked by our defense and scored. We called a timeout again, knowing we had to score. We didn’t want overtime. Again we got the puck into their half, but they kept it out. We almost got a penalty goal called for us, but the refs changed their minds, giving us an equal puck because both teams were gloving. We have another really close drive but time was called before we quite got to the goal.

Tied at 1-1, we then went into overtime. That meant we had another two halves, each five minutes with a one minute half time. 

Again they came out and smashed the puck into our half of the pool right off of the strike. There were some really close calls but we got it to the wall. In a sudden show of force they drove, putting all but one of their six players in a tight group. We tried, but couldn’t quite clear the puck out around the oncoming wall and they scored. Halftime and we were down one. 

We hit hard off the strike and after two minutes, Kim got the puck into the goal. We were tied again with just three minutes left. No more goals were scored, so we went into sudden death overtime. The first goal scored would win the game. It would go on as long as needed and the game clock was set to 99 minutes.

We went out hard again, putting everything we have left into these last few minutes. After forty minutes of high intensity hockey we were tired but could not show it. This was one of the most important games and we had gotten this far.  We had all been working for hours, months, years, just to win this game. 

We broke it off the wall, getting up the middle onto the lip of the goal, but . Elsa received an uncalled head shot but kept playing, kicking furiously. 

The Colombians swarmed up the middle putting all the people they had on the bottom. Desperately we tried to break it out, tried to get around them, but they kept it in the middle and finally got it into our goal. We had lost. 
It hurt. We had done done everything that we could, but the Colombians had taken advantage of all our little mistakes. It was an epic game that I know I will never forget.

Needless to say, we were very tired after our game. We got out and cheered on the masters men in their last game of the tournament. They played a really good game against Australia, and won, taking fifth place.

We didn’t have enough time to head home before our 5:40 pm game later that day so we found a cozy spot in the grass for a rest and some non-chlorinated air. It seemed like no time at all before we were up again and warming up for the game against France. 

Versus France:
We went out hard but we definitely felt the affects of our last game.  We managed to put in a penalty shot (even though Tyera didn’t know what was going on). Final score was 3-1, with France winning the game. It was not what we hoped for, but it is what it is.  We left everything in our game against Colombia.

Exhausted, we headed home, then went out for a well earned dinner and ice cream. We had one more game left for 7th or 8th place versus Canada, and we were going to win it.

You can re-watch the epic battle versus Colombia here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azT0YnmXvak

If you enjoyed watching the high quality (free) live streaming, consider donating to the Gofundme here to help cover the costs associated with providing this service.  

Today we had a fairly early start, leaving our apartment at 6:20 am to head to the pool. 

This was our first playoff game, and it was against Netherlands. First goal was scored by Tyera after a beautiful drive and a shot toward the goal with 8:45 left in the first half. BAM was there to seal it. 

We ended the first half with a series of disadvantage pucks directly in front of our goal.  It was quite scary, but we managed to clear the puck each time. We ended the first half up 1 to 0.

Our second goal was scored with 11 minutes left in the second half by Tyera. She sprinted at the goal and threw a monstrous flick past two defenders. The puck landed in the trough without a problem. 

The third goal was scored by Kim with a drive up the end wall with 8 minutes left in the second half.

With about 3 minutes left in the game, there was a penalty shot called for the USA. Tyera and Kim lined up to take it. The Netherland's defender had a beautiful attack, knocking down the initial shot and almost successfully defending it. She tried to swim the puck through Kim and Tyera, but Tyera was able to dispossess her and shoot the puck easily into the goal. 

With about 2 minutes left in the game, Netherlands capitalized on an advantage puck in front of our goal. One of their players was able to shoot a huge flick over one of our player's back into the goal.  

The game finished with a USA win with a final score of 4 to 1. We are now guaranteed a spot in the top eight. Tomorrow we play Colombia at 11:50 am EST, and we'll be black in court 1. If we win this game, we will be playing for a medal. 

After our Netherlands game, we spent the afternoon cheering on the other three USA teams. The elite men are guaranteed a spot in the top eight, and they are playing New Zealand tomorrow at 8:30 am EST. The master's men play tomorrow at 12:40 pm EST for 5th place versus Australia. The master's women play tomorrow at 1:30 pm EST against Argentina for 5th place.

If you would like to watch our Colombia game, the video will be live streamed here: ​www.youtube.com/watch?v=azT0YnmXvak

This afternoon we played Australia again for our last round robin game. This was a seeded round robin game, so the 3rd and 4th seeds played each other. Whoever won this game would be seeded third going into the playoffs. Previously we tied Australia with a score of 3-3.

The game was incredibly even and the first half ended 0-0. The first goal was scored by Australia in the second half with 9 minutes left in the game. The play continued to go back and forth the remainder of the game. Ianna was sent to the penalty box, and Australia had two subbing fouls that resulted in penalties. But we were unable to finish the goals, and the game ended with Australia up 1 to 0. 
 
Tomorrow morning we play game #204 versus Netherlands at 8:30 am EST, and we will be black. 

The game will be live streaming on YouTube here:  www.youtube.com/channel/UCnOBvfJcIdm9QeKn7zdECNA/featured 

Today we had our first double header of the tournament.  We had an early game against France and then this afternoon we played Germany.

There were a lot of calls made in the first game.  More of them were called against France.  We executed some of our plan fairly well, but other pieces we could have done better.  We spent a lot time grinding the puck up the wall, even the commentators said it looked more like a men's game than a women's! France received more penalties than we did, but they did a great job preventing us from scoring while they were down a player or two (from penalties).
Highlights of the game against France:

• France scored the first goal (a penalty goal) against us at about 3:30 left in the first half.  
• USA put our first goal in at 4 minutes into the second half (by Tyera Eulberg).
• France put in their second goal with 7 minutes left into the second half.
• Jen scored the second USA goal with 4 minutes left in the game.
• France scored their third goal with 2:30 left in the game. 
• We tried hard to get it back in their end, and France even had players in the penalty box, but they did a great job shutting down our drives to hold onto the victory.

We ended the game with France winning 3-2.

We had to shake the loss of the first game off since we had another game in the afternoon against Germany.  We went home, ate lunch and reviewed the video between games.  We returned to the pool refreshed and with a plan and some things to work on for our final game.

We went into this game hoping to win, so we also had some skills we planned to work on.  Germany played a great game.  We played in their half of the pool for the majority of the first half, but Germany did a great job keeping the puck out of the goal for more than half of the first half!

Highlights of the game against Germany:

• Bryna took a 2 minute penalty for an obstruction foul.
• We finally scored our first goal at about 6:30 in, by a beautiful drive and a pass by Tyera to herself, and then did a great swim into the goal up the end wall.
• Second goal was called a penalty goal, but would have been put in by Elsa.  It was called a penalty goal because of gloving by Germany.
• The third goal was scored after an off the wall and passed out to Katrina who passed it back into the wall to Monica who put the puck into the goal.
• The 4th goal was a beautiful cut up the middle to the goal by Kristin.
• The 5th goal was after successful penalty shot by a big flick from Tyera into the goal with Kim as the support.
• The 6th goal was scored by Monica after a drive swing across by Katrina who did a move to get the puck under the defenders to Monica who had a nice swim into the goal.
• The last 3 minutes of the game got a little crazy.  Monica was sent to the penalty box for gloving for 2 minutes with 2:30 left in the game.  Then Bryna was sent to the penalty box for 2 minutes for stick infringement with only :45 seconds left in the game.  We were able to run out the clock and keep the score at 6-0.  

We had a fun game against Germany and thought the German ladies were playing very well!  Keep up the good work ladies!

Tomorrow we play at 2:04 pm against Australia (again).  Game # 140 in pool 2.

Here is the YouTube link to the live stream: www.youtube.com/channel/UCnOBvfJcIdm9QeKn7zdECNA/featured

We had a fun day yesterday visiting Montmorency Falls to see a gorgeous waterfall and to go zip-lining! It was a relaxing afternoon, and we enjoyed a picnic with the US men's master's team.  
​​
Today we were lucky and had a late start, so we were able to sleep in. Going into our game against Belgium, we had three objectives that we wanted to work on and improve. We accomplished one objective, but the others were hindered by the plethora of stoppages. We were happy to successfully kill two penalties without getting scored on.

Belgium had some beautiful drives and swims across the pool, but we defeated Belgium with a score of eight to zero. 

​For those of you who missed the game, here is a run down of the goals and penalties:

• 1st goal -- Elsa scored after a drive up the end wall by Katrina. Katrina, after making a monster effort, passed the puck to a wide-open Elsa.
• 2nd goal -- Although the refs were not sure who scored it, Cheryl scored our second goal. Despite there being a crowd of bodies in the corner of the goal, she was able to slam the puck in the trough.
• 3rd goal -- Our third goal was a team effort. We are not sure who scored it! 
• 4th goal -- After a nice swim across the pool by Katrina, we were near our offensive corner and we had tons of support. Katrina was able to make a drive to the goal and pass the puck to Bryna. Bryna ran the puck straight to the goal.
• 5th goal -- We went a little off of our game plan but managed to keep the puck in the middle of the pool.  Belgium's defense became scattered, and Kim was able to drive the puck into an open goal.
• Right after the 5th goal, Kim received a one-minute penalty. After a strong push by Belgium, we were able to put it into the corner and keep it there until Kim's penalty ended.
• 6th goal -- When Kim was back in the water, she was able to drive it up the side wall. She scored a few plays later.
• 7th goal -- Our 7th goal was scored by Cheryl, who once again scored while in the midst of a scrum of bodies.
• With just three minutes left remaining in the game, Kim was kicked out again for gloving.
• 8th goal -- With Kim still in the penalty box, we managed to drive the puck nearly the entire length of the pool. Elsa sprinted from the side wall and passed the puck to Katrina. Katrina drove the puck into the trough. 

Final score was eight to zero, but Belgium played well. Despite the high number of stoppages, we had a good game.

We play two games tomorrow! Our first game is #94 against France at 8:28 am EST. Our second game is #111 against Germany at 3:40 pm. We'll be black for both games. 

You can find the live streams here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnOBvfJcIdm9QeKn7zdECNA


Enjoy some pictures from our game against New Zealand and our visit to the falls:

We had an early start to the day with a 7:40 am game against New Zealand. We were at the facility by 6:00 am doing our dryland warm-up, apnea exercise, and mind-set preparation.  

New Zealand went up by one in the first five minutes. Their second goal was scored after Tyera, our fearless captain, was kicked out for one minute for a gloving foul. Unfortunately, we were a bit scattered, and New Zealand managed to run through our defense and score. 

They were able to sneak one more in before half, so we went into halftime down three to zero. However, Coach Phil fired us up during the halftime talk, and we went into the second half of the game with renewed energy. 

The second half of the game was a hard-fought battle. We challenged New Zealand on their end wall, but they were able to keep us out of the trough. New Zealand nearly scored a fourth goal, but one of their players gloved the puck, which resulted in a USA advantage. 

With three minutes remaining, Tyera drove the puck out of our offensive corner and swam hard to the goal. New Zealand wasn't prepared, and Tyera was able to make a clean pass to her forward Bryna. Bryna slammed the puck into the trough. 

New Zealand was able to score one more goal in the last two minutes, so the game ended four to one. 

Now we have the rest of the day off.  After the USA master's men's game, we are having a picnic at Montmorency Falls, which has waterfalls, hikes, and zip lines.

It was a hard-fought game, and we learned quite a bit. We'll come out swinging tomorrow! We play Belgium at 1:16 pm EST, and we will be white. The game number is 73, for those of you who are watching our games on YouTube.  

It was a nice first day as we got to sleep in this morning, except the people that went and cheered for the USA Mens Masters!  Everyone else watched it from the comfort of their beds thanks to the Navisjon Camera System.  

We had a quick video review this morning of our practice game against Australia as well as South Africa.  After that we were ready to head to the pool and play our best.

At the pool we did our dry land warm up and an apnea exercise to warm up our body, lungs and minds.  We headed to the locker room with some sweet jams and suited up.  We were the first team on the pool deck and were able to comfortably organize our gear before heading to the warm up area.  

Once allowed, we jumped in the pool to get started on our water warm up.  Luckily, during the warm up days we practiced our technique to warming up in only one lane.  It was a bit tight, but we are now a well oiled machine.  Only one minor fin/mask collision!

Practice days prepared us well for what was coming.  We breezed through gear check, and then did our standard "Team USA" cheer.  We were in the zone.  We went out strong driving it directly into the the offensive corner.  Shortly after we had our first goal!  This was a penalty goal which is due to Elsa shooting a huge flick into the opponent's hand.  We held our ground for quite some time, but had minor breakdown that Australia took advantage of and went blazing to our goal.   We managed to re-group and had a great group effort starting with a nice drive from BAM (Beth Ann) up mid pool with a pass to Ianna with a sweet under the body move to ever present Tyera.  With speed and grace, Tyera picked up the puck and and slid it easily into the goal.

We ended the first half up 2-1.  Spirits were high at half time and we got a well earned break before diving right into the next half.   The battle was furious ping ponging up and down the wall and occasionally across the pool. Kim got a 2 minute penalty for some reason, we are still not sure after reviewing the video!   After the Aussie advantage puck, they took advantage of our missing player and swarmed the goal, alas they put the puck in the goal and tied the game.  

With our fans now sitting on the edge of their seat, they managed to break it off the wall and sneak through our last line of defense and score another goal.  With the score now 3-2 in favor of Australia, things were looking dire.  We only had 2:20 left on the clock.  We knew we had to get it together.  Coming out of the strike we pushed hard and pushed it onto the wall and down into their corner.  Along the way, with one minute left on the game clock, one of the Aussies got kicked out for the remainder of the game.  We fought ferociously in the corner until we could finally break it off to the side to Elsa, where she drove it across the goal and did a fast curl to pass it under the fins of the Aussies, straight to BAM who slammed it in the goal, tying the score.  With only 30 seconds left, we took the next strike and held it on the wall until the clock ran out. 

 We finished tied 3-3, and were relieved.  We circled up and cheered for a hard fought game, and thanked the players for the good match.

Overall our forwards did an amazing job shutting down the Aussie swings.  The back line put up a solid defense and had some heroic drives up the wall. It was a great game, we are looking forward to facing off with New Zealand tomorrow!

We play in black suits tomorrow morning at 7:40 am.  This is game number 33 in pool number 1.

Here is the link to the live stream of our game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_eRdrXCpjY&t=0s&index=66&list=PLiNacqPSt_DtqiQtvtnPuc-VrRmSXtCiX

 to We have arrived safely in the beautiful and historic Quebec City, Canada.  Traveling from around the United States and one player who travelled from Germany.

We had four days of practice and had some fun friendly games!  We were able to play against: Colombia, Australia, South Africa, Netherlands and Spain.  This was a great opportunity for us to practice some skills and find our rhythm as a team again.

Tomorrow we play our first round robin game against Australia at 2:04 PM (EST) (game # 18)
Live streaming here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToWzbuRryAA

Follow along with our progress:

Schedule and scores should be posted here real time: https://uwhscores.com/t/worlds2018
Live streaming to other games will be posted on this youtube channel: 
​https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNacqPSt_DtqiQtvtnPuc-VrRmSXtCiX&disable_polymer=true
​Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/USAUWHwomen/
Follow us on Instagram​: @usawomenuwh or www.instagram.com/usawomenuwh/
Website for blog posts:  ​www.teamusawomenuwh.com/

Pictures from the past four days.