Pythia Cup, Itea, Greece

Emily Benson had a strong tournament for the Australians (Anthony Pearse/Pearse Photography)

Game 4: Australia vs. Italy

The Australian Born '93 junior women's team has finished fourth at the Pythia Cup after going down 9-4 to Italy in their final game of the tournament.

The Aussie girls started strongly creating numerous opportunities to lead 2-1 early, before a string of errors in front of goal cost the team a sizeable lead.

Italy was able to make the most of Australia's missed chances in the second half, earning numerous kick outs and causing severe foul trouble for the junior Aussies.

Coach Ryan Moar was disappointed with the lack of discipline in defence, but gave credit to the girls who were still in the water for matching it with the Italians.

"We made this game extremely difficult for ourselves from the outset by failing to convert two extra player opportunities and a clear two on one counter attack opportunity in the first three minutes of the game," Moar said.

"We also suffered a huge number of exclusions through sloppy defence gifting Italy too many opportunities to score.

"At the end of the game our goalkeeper, Emma Williams, was forced to play in the field as all players on the bench had accumulated three exclusions. Many of the kick outs could easily have been avoided through more clinical defence.

"The players remaining in the pool at the end of the fourth quarter were exhausted after a gruelling couple of days. However they kept battling with the Italians until the final whistle, which was the pleasing aspect of our final game."

The junior Aussies now travel to Hungary for a five day training camp before returning to Australia next week.

Final standings: Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Australia, France.

Australian Born '93

Michaela Davies, Emma Williams, Bronte Colenso, Claire Negus, Jessica Brooks, Cathryn Earl, Bridget O'Connor, Laura Malcolm, Emily Carr, Tayla Walsh, Emily Benson, Morgan Baxter, Matil Connor

Result: Australia 4 lost to Italy 9

Qtrs: 2-3, 1-1, 1-3, 0-2

X man for: 3 from 14

X man against: Italy scored 4 from 18 and 1 from 1 penalty

AUS Scorers: Tayla Walsh 2, Emily Carr, Bronte Colenso

AUS Best: Emily Carr, Cathryn Earl, Tayla Walsh

Game 3: Australia vs. Greece

The Australian Born '93 junior women's team has gone down to hosts Greece 14-9 in their third game of the Pythia Cup in Itea.

The Aussie girls were under pressure from the opening whistle as the powerful Greek team earned countless extra-man opportunities.

Australia did well to reduce Greece to just six from 14 extra-man goals but the wealth of attacking chances was telling on the Aussie defence.

"Too many lapses in one on one defence cost us dearly in this game," head coach Ryan Moar said.

"Silly major fouls on the perimeter and in transition from attack into counter defence gave the Greek team 14 opportunities to punish us with six on five play. Although our extra defence was good it was under unnecessary pressure too many times.

"Our blocking was shown to be a weakness in this game also. Technique and commitment to blocking was poor compared to our last game against Holland."

Senior players Cathryn Earl and Bronte Colenso again proved strong in attack and defence while Jess Brooks and Tayla Walsh were also influential.

Australian Born '93

Emma Williams, Bronte Colenso, Claire Negus, Jessica Brooks, Cathryn Earl, Bridget O'Connor, Laura Malcolm, Emily Carr, Tayla Walsh, Emily Benson, Morgan Baxter, Matil Connor, Tara Pitman

Result: Australia 9 lost to Greece 14

Qtrs: 1-2, 2-4, 2-4, 4-4

X man for: 4 from 9

X man against: Greece scored 6 from 14 and 2 from 2 penalties

AUS Scorers: Bronte Colenso 2, Cathryn Earl 2, Tayla Walsh 2, Claire Negus, Jess Brooks, Matil Connor

AUS Best: Cathryn Earl, Bronte Colenso, Jess Brooks

Emily Benson starred with three goals for Australia (Anthony Pearse/Pearse Photography)

Game 2: Australia vs. Netherlands

The Australian Born '93 junior women's team has gone down to the Netherlands 9-5 in their second game of the Pythia Cup in Greece.

The junior Aussies started strongly matching the powerful Dutch outfit 2-2 in the first term, before fading in the second half.

Bronte Colenso and Emily Benson again had strong games for Australia while Tara Pitman netted two goals.

Head coach Ryan Moar said it was promising that the girls were showing signs of improvement but emphasised that the team needed to improve their execution if they were to beat teams like the Netherlands.

"We have come to know the Dutch very well over the past week with a lot of common training and this being our second official match against them in six days. But it seems that they have learnt more about our weaknesses than we have about theirs," Moar said.

"They are a very strong, well-rounded team with many attacking weapons. They broke our defence open in the third quarter and we couldn't close the gap due to missed attacking opportunities throughout the game.

"It is pleasing that we are creating dangerous scoring situations in attack, but it is disappointing that we are missing way too many of these chances."

Australia's next game is against Greece.

Australian Born '93

Michaela Davies, Bronte Colenso, Claire Negus, Jessica Brooks, Cathryn Earl, Bridget O'Connor, Emily Carr, Tayla Walsh, Emily Benson, Morgan Baxter, Matil Connor, Emma Williams, Tara Pitman

Result: Australia 5 lost to Netherlands 9

Qtrs: 2-2, 1-2, 1-3, 1-2

X man for: 3 from 6 and 0 from 1 penalty

X man against: Netherlands scored 6 from 12 and 1 from 1 penalty

AUS Scorers: Bronte Colenso 2, Tara Pitman 2, Cathryn Earl

AUS Best: Bronte Colenso, Tara Pitman, Emily Benson

Game 1: Australia vs. France

The Australian Born '93 junior women's team has won their opening game of the Pythia Cup defeating France 8-5.

The girls recovered from a slow start to draw level at half time, before netting five goals to two after the main break to seal the victory.

Emily Benson led the way for Australia netting three goals while Jess Brooks and Bronte Colenso were standouts in defence.

Coach Ryan Moar was pleased with the girl's resolve in defence and praised their ability to keep on fighting for the win.

"We had a couple of lapses of concentration early in the game that allowed France to take an early lead which we had to fight hard to get back," Moar said

"Our extra defence was definitely a strong point and set up the win for us.

"We strayed from the team systems in attack too often but did enough to keep in front and finish off well in the final quarter."

Australia's next game is against Netherlands later today.

Australian Born '93

Michaela Davies, Bronte Colenso, Claire Negus, Jessica Brooks, Cathryn Earl, Bridget O'Connor, Laura Izzy Malcolm, Tayla Walsh, Emily Benson, Morgan Baxter, Matil Connor, Emma Williams, Tara Pitman

Result: Australia 8 bt France 5

Qtrs: 2-3, 1-0, 3-2, 2-0

X man for: 4 from 10 and 1 from 1 penalty

X man against: France score 3 from 13

AUS Scorers: Emily Benson 3, Bronte Colenso, Claire Negus, Jess Brooks, Morgan Baxter and Tayla Walsh

AUS Best: Emily Benson, Jess Brooks, Bronte Colenso

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