Hockey: Black Sticks miss chance to play for medal in London

Olivia Merry. Photo / Duncan Brown

New Zealand have missed a chance to play for a medal after a disappointing 1-1 with the United States in their final round robin match at the Champions Trophy in London today.

The women's Black Sticks needed to win to go into the playoff for bronze against Australia.

Despite dominating patches of the game, and getting 23 shots on the US goal compared to the Americans' 11, they weren't able to convert their chances to goals.

World No 4 New Zealand will now play off for fifth and six against Britain early tomorrow.

Britain are the only team New Zealand have beaten in the round robin, a 1-0 win, but were well beaten by the Netherlands, Australia and Argentina before today.

The US led at halftime, through an early field goal by Kelsey Kolojejchick. New Zealand drew level in the third quarter with a goal from Olivia Merry but could not finish the job.

World No 1 the Netherlands will play No 2-ranked Argentina for the trophy tomorrow, after the Dutch won a preview of the final 2-0 today, while Australia, after a 4-1 win against Britain, will play the US for third and fourth.

''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," Black Sticks assistant coach Sean Dancer said.

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