August 7, 2010
The Canadian women’s indoor team is beginning to settle in at their hotel, here in Barquisimeto. With the men’s team arriving late after their bus rides, both Canadian sides are starting to prepare for the beginning of the tournament in two days. The women’s team tested out the court on Friday afternoon, a few hours after arriving. The mentality of "prepare yourself for anything" has always been in the back of our heads and after some crazy bus rides with an open door air conditioning system, team Canada hit the new blue court inside the Doma (the dome). The court is unlike any of the gym floors the team has trained on in Ontario. The surface is almost plastic or rubber-like with quite the bounce. The boards are also a little different and seem to take off some of the pace of the ball. Ready for anything, the girls have found their own solutions to deal with the court and have been moving forward since.
Today, the team took on an eager home team, Venezuela, in an exhibition match. The team was eager to play together since outdoor national team members Kate Gillis, Ali Lee and Azelia Liu have only been present in small blocks of time throughout the training months. With Liu not arriving until Sunday afternoon, Katy-Jo Williams was called on to battle between the posts. The team spent the first half getting used to the floor and only taking the lead 1-0 on a free play goal by Jess Buttinger. The second period saw a bit more action in both ends but Williams was strong in net. Canada earned more penalty corner options with a few good early attempts by Kri Shier. Nicole Zaharopoulos converted the second goal early in the second half on a great individual effort. Ali Lee was able to convert on 2 penalty corners and Angela Lancaster sealed the game with another free play goal.
The Canadian women were comfortable with their 5-0 win and used the game to test out a few new positions and tactics. The team is spending the afternoon at the hotel with some recovery in the pool and will look to face Argentina in their last test match before the tournament.