Black Sticks miss shot at bronze after draw

The Black Sticks Women have missed out on a chance at a medal following a 1-1 draw with USA at the Hockey Champions Trophy in London.

New Zealand came into the game needing to beat the Americans to secure a spot in tomorrows bronze medal match against Australia.

The Black Sticks dominated patches of play against USA, highlighted by 23 shots at goal to their opponents 11, but werent able to convert opportunities onto the scoreboard.

Trailing 0-1 at halftime, the Kiwis came back to level the score early into the third quarter with a goal from Olivia Merry but couldnt keep the momentum going against a desperate USA defence.

The result sees the Black Sticks destined to play off for 5th/6th against hosts Great Britain at 12:30am tomorrow morning (NZ time), with live coverage on SKY Sport 2.

The Netherlands and Argentina will contest the Champions Trophy gold medal, while Australia take on USA for bronze.

Assistant coach Sean Dancer said it was a disappointing result given the amount of chances his team created.

"We came up with a lot of good chances to score goals but struggled to put them away, so it was a disappointing result for us," he said.

"Tomorrows game will be a tough challenge but we need to be ready to finish the tournament with a good result."

USA opened the scoring in the 10th minute from a counter attack with Kelsey Kolojejchick putting away a field goal.

Despite a glut of possession and chances, it wasnt until the 36th minute that the Black Sticks responded when Olivia Merry knocked in a penalty corner deflection.

The second half became a very open game with both sides searching for a winner - New Zealand pulled the goalkeeper with three minutes remaining but the score was to remain the same as time expired.

In other results today the Netherlands defeated Argentina 2-0 and Australia overcame Great Britain 4-1

BLACK STICKS 1: (Olivia Merry)

USA 1: (Kelsey Kolojejchick)

Halftime: USA 1-0



- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Hockey NZ