In front of a passionate home crowd, the Ord Minnett Aussie Stingers have gone down fighting to three-time Olympic champions USA in the semi finals of the 2026 World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup Finals.
The US were dominant from the outset, scoring two goals in the first quarter to set up a lead that the Aussies, despite a constant battle, were unable to chase down.
Paris Olympian Sienna Hearn scored two goals for Aussie Stingers, forming a crucial part of the home side’s attack.
“We always have a tough battle with the US, they’re a really strong, technical, fast team, and so are we – so it’s always a good match up.
“We went in there with a bit of plan, and we kind of swayed away from that a bit, so that’s a bit disappointing on our end.
“We tried to focus on just playing our game, and not worrying about the past or the future, and focus on the moment. It was awesome to play with the home crowd, it was just a bit disappointing that we didn’t get away with the win.
“To have a whole pool full of our friends and family, and the water polo community, it’s really special. At the end of the day you want to win, but this is such a huge part of our careers and something that we’ll never forget,” she said.
Hearn said the team will take some time to digest today’s result, before refocusing for Sunday’s bronze medal match.
“We’ll give ourselves some time to reflect and feel the emotions of that loss because that’s the nature of sport and then we’ve got to flip our mindset to the next game, focus on what we need to do and fine tune those mistakes that we were making today,” she said.
Ord Minnett Aussie Stingers Head Coach Bec Rippon echoed Hearn’s comments, saying the team are so grateful for the Aussie fans support.
“We can’t thank everyone enough for coming out tonight. We have such a privilege of going overseas and playing in front of other nations home crowds, so it was really amazing to be able to do that for our fans, friends and family here tonight who follow us all over the world.
“Obviously we’d love to win for them, but being able to play in front of them, hopefully inspire them and just say thanks to them,” she said.
The Ord Minnett Aussie Stingers will now play Russia in the bronze medal match on Sunday 26 July at 12:45pm. The USA and Spain will go head-to-head in the gold medal match.
Coming up tomorrow, the Ord Minnett Aussie Sharks will play Hungary in the men’s semi final at 6:30pm.
World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup Finals are live on Kayo Sports, with tickets available at waterpoloaustralia.com.au/events/2026-world-cup-finals-sydney
