T&T senior hockey women suffered a 16-0 demolition at the hands of the USA in their Group B opener of the Pan American Cup at the Prince of Wales Country Club, La Reina, Santiago, Chile on Wednesday.
Going into the contest, the 48th world-ranked Anthony Marcano-coached “Calypso Stickwomen” were considered heavy underdogs and their cause was not help with more than half of the team arriving in South America around midnight on Tuesday.
Within a minute of the first whistle, the 15th world-ranked Americans signalled their intent Elizath Yeager opening the scoring with a close-range finish past goalkeeper Arresia Sandy.
Two minutes later Erin Matson doubled the lead for the USA before Ashley Sessa (fourth) and Hope Solo (eighth), added their names to the scoresheet for a 4-0 lead at the end of the first 15-minutes period.
The second quartet was more of the same as USA pegged the T&T women into their half of the field with Matson (24th), Sessa (24th) and a brace from Rose in the 26th and 30th minutes pushing the margin to 8-0 at the half-time interval.
The third period proved to be T&T's best defensive effort as they conceded only three goals through Matson (33rd), Sofia Southam (38th) and Yeager (40th).
However, the extra effort from the T&T players proved costly as key defender Amanda George picked up a left calf injury with six minutes left in the period.
The absence of the experienced George was felt in the final quarter as the Americans upped the tempo and added five more goals, with Yeager (46th penalty stroke), Alia Marshall (48th), Danielle Grega (55th), Rose with her fourth in the 57th, and Lauren two minutes from full-time all scoring to complete the lopsided result.
The win lifted the USA to the top of the four-team pool ahead of 13th ranked Canada on goal-difference after the latter also recorded an emphatic 14-0 triumph over Peru, ranked 34th.
Tomorrow when the women's competition resume, T&T will come up against Peru in a crucial clash from 1p m that could well determine the third spot in the pool ahead of the playoffs while Canada faces the USA in a virtual pool decider as well from 3.15 pm.
The local women then complete pool play against Canada on Sunday from 1 pm as well while the USA plays Peru.
Last night in Pool A, five-time winners Argentina came up against Uruguay in their opener with host Chile the other team in their group.
At the end of the round-robin pool play on Sunday, the top team from each pool will advance directly to the main draw semifinals on January 27 while the second and third-placed teams in each pool meet in cross-over quarterfinals two days earlier to determine the two remaining semifinal qualifiers.
Both finalists and the third-place finishers in the Pan American competition which ends on January 29 will earn places at the16-team FIH World Cup.
This is the fourth time the T&T women are appearing in the competition after making their debut in 2004 in Barbados when they ended eighth.
T&T then qualified in 2009 and placed fourth in Bermuda, and four years later they ended seventh in Argentina.
The 2022 Women's FIH Hockey World Cup will be the 15th edition of the Women's FIH Hockey World Cup, and will be held in Terrassa, Spain and Amstelveen, the Netherlands from July 1 to 17, 2022.
Wednesday's Results
Pool B:
Canada 14 (Brienne Stairs 15th, 28th, 35th, 43rd, 60th, Elise Wong 18th, 42nd, Alison Lee 25th, Madeline Secco 26th, Sarah Mc Manus 47th, Amanda Woodcroft 48th, Jordyn Faiczak 49th, 55th, Madison Thompson 52nd) vs Peru 0
USA (Hope Rose 8th, 26th, 30th, 57th, Elizabeth Yeager 1st, 40th, 46th pen, Erin Matson 3rd, 24th, 33rd, Ashley Sessa 4th, 24th, Sofiah Southam 36th, Alia Marshall 54th, Danielle Grega 55th, Lauren Moyer 59th) vs T&T 0
Friday's matches
Peru vs T&T, 1 pm
USA vs Canada, 3.15 pm
Chile vs Argentina, 5.30 pm