Australian Open Women's Team off to Canada Cup

Mon Jun 26 21:04:30 EDT 2006

Received: 6/26/06 6:43:51 PM 
From:  "DiAnne Lilburn" <dianne.lilburn(at)softball.org.au> 

Subject:  Australian Open Women's Team off to Canada Cup  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Media Release
27 June 2006

Australian Open Women’s Team off to CanadaCup

On Wednesday 28 June, the Australian Open Women’s softball team,
AussieSpirit, departs Sydney to head forthe Canada Cup as its
lead up to final preparations for the InternationalSoftball Federation’s
Women’s World Championship.  

The Canada Cup, one of the best competitive tournaments inthe
world and in its 13th year, takes place from 1-9 July in Vancouver
and willsee Australia go upagainst some of the world’s best pitchers
and hitters the internationalgame has to offer. 

Head Coach Fabian Barlow is lookingforward to the competition
which will give players and the team finalopportunities to experience
the highest standard of softball prior to the WorldChampionship
with strong opponents like the USA, Japan, Canada and China.

“The competition will help us continue to work on ourdefensive
set-ups and just as importantly our belief systems and team dynamics.It
will also give us the opportunity to see our opponents’ strengths
andweaknesses as well as what they perceive ours to be,” said
Barlow. 

Barlow is mindful of the tacticsthat will be used by countries
competing at the World Championship in Augustsaying that “there
is a strong possibility that teams will hide some oftheir potential
weapons that they will look to bring out in Beijing and we willbe
no different. You need to get a good mix of testing out some
of your gameplans but having something in reserve to take to
the Worlds.”

Under Barlow’s leadership, Australia defeatedUSA Elite 3-0 to
take home last year’s Canada Cup and is confident thatthe experienced
17-player team will again put in a strong performance.

“I am confident that we will win our share of gamesover the course
of the two tournaments and commit to the cause every time wetake
to the field to represent the country,” concluded Barlow. 

The team, consisting of 9 world championship players and 10Olympians,
includes Sandra Allen (Qld), Catherine Bishop (SA), Marissa Carpadios(Qld),
Kylie Cronk (Qld), Amanda Doman (Qld), Kelly Gentle (NSW), Kelly
Hardie (Qld), Tanya Harding (co-captain) (Qld), Danica Howlett
(NSW), Simmone Morrow (NSW), Tracey Mosley (Qld), Stacey Porter
(NSW), Kate Quigley (Vic), Danielle Stewart (Qld), Natalie Titcume
(Vic), Natalie Ward (co-captain) (NSW) and Belinda Wright (NSW).

The Canada Cup willbe held at Softball City, BC Canada and then
the Australian team will head to Oklahoma to compete in the US
World Cup from 13-17 July 2006.

Natalie Ward, Australia’ssecond most capped player will surpass
current most capped player Sally McCreedyon day four of the Canada
Cup. 

***The team will be visiting the WestmeadChildren’s Hospital
in Sydney at 5.00pm tonight (27 June, 2006) in conjunction with
St George whoare proud supporters of Softball Australia***  

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Fabian Barlow, HeadCoach, Australian Women’s team

DRAW

Round Robin format and date and time of games listed in AEST

Day 1 – Sunday 2 July 

6:30am - Australia vs Venezuela 

11:30am – Australia vs SchuttHurricanes

Day 2 – Monday 3 July 

6:30am – Australia vsWashington Blast

Day 3 – Tuesday 4 July 

8:30am –Canada Elite vs Australia

Day 4 – Wednesday 5 July 

1:30pm - Australia vs Japan –Denso Club 

Day 5 – Thursday 6 July 

11:30am – Australia vs AmericanPastime

Day 6 – Friday 7 July 

8:30am – Australia vs China

Day 7 – Saturday 8 July 

Play Offs

Day 8 – Sunday 9 July 

Semi Finals

Day 9 – Monday 10 July 

Preliminary 
Grand Final

FOR MORE INFORMATION
DiAnne Lilburn

National Communications Coordinator

SoftballAustralia

Suite 4, Ground Floor

38-40 Prospect Street

Box Hill, Victoria 3128

T: +61 3 9890 8200

F: +61 3 9890 8295

M: +61 (0) 405 509 674

Formore information visit www.softball.org.au

_____________________________________________________________________________
Didyou know that Australia is the world's number onesoftball
nation?  
World number two - Open Women's team(Aussie Spirit), Silver Medallist
(Athens, 2004), BronzeMedallists (Sydney 2000 and Atlanta 1996).

World number one - Under 19 Men's team(Aussie Colts), three consecutive
World Championship titles. 
World number three - Open Men's team(Aussie Steelers) and Under
19 Women's team (Aussie Pride).

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