The U.S. junior women’s team ended three rounds of pool play with a 2-1 record and a second place finish in group D, earning a spot in the quarterfinal knock out rounds against England, Wednesday, July 26, in Tauranga, New Zealand.
The U.S., five seeds, coasted through the first pool play match against Ireland Tuesday, with Grace Doyle, Laila Sedky and Elle Ruggiero all recording three-game victories in twenty minutes or less.
Wednesday proved to be the pivotal day of pool play with matches against four seeds Hong Kong and twelve seeds Korea. In the first match of the day, Hong Kong held off the U.S. in a close 2-1 match. Marina Stefanoni claimed the lone win for the U.S. in three games, while Grace Doyle and Elle Ruggiero narrowly lost in five and four games, respectively.
The U.S. bounced back in the final pool play match, sweeping Korea 3-0 to finish second and book a spot in the quarterfinals.
The U.S. will face a tough challenge in the knock out rounds, Thursday July 27, in the form of three seeds England, who topped Pool C with three wins. The match will take place on the glass court at 4:30pm local time, 12:30am ET, and will be streaming live on www.wsfworldjuniors.com.
For more information and tournament coverage, visit www.wsfworldjuniors.com.
