Australia came from 7-4 down in the third quarter to beat Commonwealth rival Canada 10-9 in the play-off for bronze at the six-nation Holiday Cup women’s water polo tournament in Los Alamitos.

Australia made a 5-0 run to take the third period 6-3 and go on to victory against the team it will meet in their first game of the FINA World Championships in Melbourne next March.

World League champion United States of America beat Russia 13-8 in the gold-medal final with the Netherlands claiming fifth with an 11-9 victory over Olympic champion Italy.

Australia started poorly with Canada ahead 5-3 at halftime. However, a halftime blast from head coach Greg McFadden saw Australia rebound with strong defence and four counter-attack goals.

In the vital statistics, Victoria Brown made 11 saves in goal and the extra-player count saw Australia convert two of five attempts while blocking six of eight.

The win was even more impressive as key play-makers Nikita Cuffe and Gemma Beadsworth were fouled out in the third quarter and the less experienced players had to step up to secure the win.

Australia best were Kate Gynther, Suzie Fraser, Jenna Santoromito, Jane Moran and Katie Finucane.

McFadden said: “This tour allowed us to gain some valuable experience for the players trying to cement or break into the team for the World Championships.

“We only had five players backing up from the successful World Cup assault in August due to minor injuries and other commitments and at times only two of them were playing because of injuries on tour or players being fouled out.

“We showed that we were still competitive in all our games with our biggest loss being four goals to the United States who were at full strength but it took them right up until the last quarter to get on top of us,” he said.

“There was too much inconsistency within our games and we also allowed way too many easy goals at times. But when the team is in the right frame of mind and can produce five goals in five minutes like we did today, then teams are really going to find us hard to beat.”

McFadden rated his best players for the tour as goalkeeper Emma Knox and centre forward Bronwen Knox until they were injured while Kate Gynther started to play well towards the end of the tournament, receiving three player-of-the-match awards.

“However, the player of the tour was Gemma Beadsworth who was always a threat to the opposition in attack, while also playing some great defence at times.”

The squad for the FINA World Championships in Melbourne in March will be announced on Friday.

Water Polo Australia