Semi Final vs Korea

Today the girls came off the back of a narrow loss against Japan to play Korea in the semi-final. The Aussies were keen to cement a solid win against some determined opposition and secure their place in tomorrow’s grand final with Japan.

From the first centre draw it was clear that Korea were definitely there to play. Korea won the first centre and moved the ball quickly into attack. Korea’s brand of lacrosse was physical with a strong focus on driving to goal. But our girls met their physicality by sticking to the plan in defence and attack.

The game proved to be one largely fought out in the midfield with the Aussie girls turning over the ball multiple times with some great defensive body position and clearing.
Meanwhile the girls in attack showed some great awareness and timing as they moved the ball around goal.

The final score went Australia’s way 14-2. The Australian MVP for today went to goalie Ellie Cope for stopping most of Korea’s 14 attempts on goal.

Game 4 vs Japan

Today we played against Japan, which is our toughest opposition in the tournament.

In the first half Japan where up by a few goals, but the score didn’t reflect how it looked on the field.

For most of second half we stepped up and played amazing!! Unfortunately the final score was 10-13 to Japan. If we played the whole game as well as we did in the last 15 minutes we would definitely have achieved a different result.

It was a hard game but we know we could have fought harder. We know what we have to do now and are pumped to play them in the final!
Mikayla Varga was awarded today’s MVP.

After the game some of us stayed and watched the boys game, and the rest went (via crazy taxi drivers) to the Pearl Markets where we did some more shopping!

Bring on Korea tomorrow!

By Kira Maunton

Game 3 vs China

By Charlotte Whinnen

Monday the 24th of June, the start of our last week away! After enjoying breakfast we all had free time to prep for our game against China. The bus rides are so quiet now as everyone has purchased new head phones… which are so awesome!!

Stepping out onto the field was like stepping into a sauna… So hot, humid and smoggy! Nothing like we are used too! Playing against China today was a challenge, not in score wise but skill level wise! The China lacrosse team has only been around for a short period of time so are still developing. We stuck to our game plan, played hard and played as a team WINNING 28 to 0!!!! Everyone is definitely pumped to play our competition Japan tomorrow!

Tonight was mega fun, Faye our fabulous Manager organised for us to see an acrobatic show… It was INSANE!! 10 girls balancing on 1 bicycle, the muscles the men had were unbelievable and 5 men on motorbikes riding around in a little metal sphere… JUST WOW!! Such a fun day!! Bring on tomorrow 😊

Game 2 vs USA Starz

By Bec Putna #3

We had an early start before our 10am game against the USA stars. Against a team unfortunately lacking in numbers we had no trouble in securing a 26-1 win. The game allowed us to practice a lot of great attacking play, focusing on possession and fast ball movement. Although tackling incredible heat both teams were in good spirits and at the end of the match Hannah Mathwin was awarded MVP.

In the afternoon some chose to return to the Silk Markets to snag a few more bargains while others stayed in the comfort of the hotel for some well earned rest.

After dinner the APLU held an auction evening where all teams were able to bid on donated items such as uniforms and iPhone covers. Charlotte, Kira and Hayley were all successful in buying items and all thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of the night.

Opening Ceremony and Game 1 vs Korea

By Grace Mackie

The 2013 ASPAC competition was officially opened today, with all teams gathering at the Stadium of National Olympics Sports Centre here in Beijing for the opening ceremony this morning. Both men and women from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the United States stood behind their nation’s flag as national anthems were sung and various welcome speeches were made. The sun was beaming down and the humidity seemed high as our girls were becoming slightly restless, before an entertaining performance by ‘Chinese Lions‘ were put on display. Bright in colour and full of energy; the dancing, jumping and leaping dragons proved as an amusing act and portrayed traditional Chinese culture, fitting to the ceremony. Running slightly behind schedule, we bustled back to the hotel to have a quick feed before heading off to our first game against Korea!

An early and taxing start to the day was becoming evident on our attitudes, for the lack of intensity and excitement was worrying, especially considering this was our first game. The sun had thankfully hidden behind the clouds and a nice cool breeze took its place, so we knew the weather wasn’t going to be as much of a struggle compared to previous matches in sunny Tokyo. Ian lead an upbeat warm up, as did Sachi and Bec in our stick drills though nothing seemed to pump us up, and we all seemed drained and exhausted. Two minutes before game time, our captains Charlotte and Bec L gave us a bit of a wakeup call – after all we were representing our country!

The game started off well with our girls scoring 3 goals in the first 5 minutes, though Bec pointed out that our attack wasn’t the well-structured, team-working set up we had wanted to play. After a short discussion during time out we went back to playing our style of lacrosse, which demonstrated immense team work, lengthy amounts of controlled possession and fast ball movement – something the sideline supporters found impressive.

Throughout the game, we found our defense was slightly lazy. Instead of applying good body pressure which we had practiced at trainings, we were chasing sticks and dropping our level of play. Even though we improved this throughout the game, the girls agree that this is definitely something we can work on to improve our future games.
Our attack on the other hand was on fire, with drives from the top of the fan, speedy cuts, fast breaks and settled plays all being a part of our game. Occasionally we would forget that we didn’t need to continuously take shots or make those extra-long passes considering we were winning by a fair margin, but for the most part we really worked hard for each other and the result showed that.

With over 5 main goal scorers in attack and an uncountable amount of ‘turn-arounds’ in defense, our team work was incredible, and I think we learnt a lot about each player’s individual styles of play and how we can adapt to them in order to benefit the team as a whole.
A blistering finish of 23 – 5 showed that we are here to play awesome lacrosse, and we are definitely ready to get back on the field for our match on Sunday.
Go Aussies!

Tourists in Beijing

For the past 2 days we have been lucky to have time to relax, but also to see some of the sights in Beijing.

Last night we walked to the ‘Bird’s Nest’ and the Water Cube where the 2008 Olympics were held. The main street leading up to these two amazing buildings were filled with street vendors selling everything from small kites to electronic toys and traditional Chinese souvenirs. We had a great time bartering with each person and purchased some great bargains!

After a light run and training session this morning, we visited Tiananmen Square in the centre if Beijing. Tiananmen Square is the biggest Square of any city worldwide. Tiananmen Square is of great historical significance to Beijing and has been the location of many famous protests as well as political addresses by current and former leaders.

Tomorrow we play the first game of the Championships vs Korea. Fingers crossed the weather is not too hot.

Beijing

We arrived safely in Beijing yesterday. The weather is hot and the sun is scorching! Our hotel (Holiday Inn Minzuyuan) is huge, but perhaps not as clean as we would have liked.

After arriving yesterday our Chinese Liaison, Daniel, took us to lunch just near our hotel. The restaurant looked like a McDonald’s, except instead of selling burgers and fries we had chicken, rice and salad.

Most of us spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up on sleep from the early morning flight or wandering through the giant supermarket that is right next door.

We have enjoyed seeing all the bikes in Beijing and spotting many English errors!

Final days in Tokyo

Our final 2 days in Tokyo have been action packed! We played the Japanese National Team yesterday and played our best game so far. The final score was 20-4. The Japanese team are a highly skillful team and our girls showed great determination to slow down their speedy and agile game style.

The games in Japan have been very tough, but will be a great warm up for our games in China for the ASPAC Championship next week.

Today we spent the day as tourists, and not athletes! The girls went on a bus tour of downtown Tokyo and then we all hit Tokyo Disneyland. We all had the most fantastic time. Some highlights included Space Mountain, The Grand Parade and SHOPPING! So much Disney merchandise and many, many happy faces.

Shibuya

This evening Sachi took us all to visit the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo. We visited a lacrosse shop and then the girls shopped and had dinner. All of the girls returned with wonderful stories of new experiences in Japan; restaurants where you have to take your shoes off, delicious Ramen noodles in the busy streets of Tokyo and everyone went home with shopping bags!

Aus v Japan U22 and Kansai

Another day full of intense lacrosse today! Our team is improving so much and we had two very close games today.

Our first game was against the U22 Japan National Team and we lost 12-6. We managed to keep within 2 goals of them for the entire first half which is an outstanding effort. We will face this team again on China and we hope to be even more competitive next time.

Our second game was against Kansai State Team. This team is made up of players from lots of different universities. They were a very young and fast team and in the end we lost by only one goal. The final score was 7-6.

Today was quite hot on the turf field in Tokyo and the girls are all feeling very tired after 2 hard fought out games. We hope to find some energy to visit the Shibuya shopping district this afternoon!