Illawarra Academy of Sports Graduate Grace Stewart’s goal wasn’t enough to propel the Hockeyroos to the bronze medal at the Champions Trophy as the Australian team fell in a penalty shoot-out loss against the USA over the weekend. Things looked promising for the green and gold when the former IAS Athlete and Australian rising star scored to give them a 2-0 lead in the 34th minute but things took a turned pear-shaped after that. Katie Bam scored twice to level the match at 2-2 and send it into a penalty shoot-out. The Americans then held their nerve best as every Australian player who got their chance, including Albion Park’s Casey Sablowski, missed from the spot. Melissa Gonzalez finish was enough to see the US triumph 1-0. Hockeyroos Head Coach Adam Commens said it was a disappointing result. “I thought we dominated the game for the first three quarters, and then our last quarter was poor,” he said. “We started making decisions that we hadn’t been making all game, people not presenting for the ball and we went away from the objectives that we had for the game. “I think that the frustrating thing about it is that you put in a great performance, and then you let a team into it. “I’ve something that I’ve spoken about throughout this tournament that we need to be better at and today unfortunately we weren’t as clinical as I would have liked in that last quarter.” Stewart and Sablowski will now play the waiting game to see if they are selected in the squad for the Rio Olympics later this year.
