Women's Water Polo Tournament at the Aquatics AQUA World Championships 2025

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

5 hours ago, AsensioWillemsen said:

With 5 EU countries being more prominent it won't be easy to qualify, albeit possible because of the two extra spots.

It's definitely hard but very much doable considering our competition outside of Europe - New Zealand, Japan and China are very much in our reach over the next couple of years and if we keep improving like we are then we can hopefully make further sure of our spot come the final qualifier (I don't think Russia will be back and it's looking likely South Africa will decline their quota again, however Israel could start causing us some problems with the way they're starting to play again). 

[lapaj 437]

Congrats !

[George_D 1,638]

 

Edited July 23, 2025 by George_D

[phelps 8,695]

wow! what a performance by the  team!  

 

Tricha and Santa have been amazing in all the important matches, but the whole team just put on a real show 

 

very, very happy for them 

[George_D 1,638]

The world titles in women:

 

 - 8 

, , ,  - 2

,  - 1

[Makedonas 2,262]

On 7/21/2025 at 1:22 PM, Cinnamon Bun said:

Not as far as I know of, tbh we've only been prominent since Post Tokyo but with the women's team looking good to qualify for LA hopefully there will be a programme set up in place for future games. 

 

I think the way we work over here is if you do well without the support, you get the support so if the women can qualify I won't be surprised if we see us perform better across the board in years to come. 

Your girls did okay at the 2013 Worlds in a tough group but never built on that momentum or really did anything again for a while. I guess maybe some of those girls only stayed active as they were pre-qualified for the Worlds as Olympic hosts and then retired?

[Makedonas 2,262]

On 7/21/2025 at 3:36 PM, JoshMartini007 said:

Great Britain isn't that far off from the likes of New Zealand, Japan or even China. I can see them closing the gap with just a little bit of investment.

 

Of course, if Russia returns then things get a bit tougher.

They just lost by 13 to Japan...

[Makedonas 2,262]

So great for us to win our second world title! 

We had such a young team in Paris, and after a few shocking retirements it seemed like our future maybe wasn't as bright as we hoped (though we knew we had a lot of young talent in the Tricha/Santa/Siouti/Tornarou generation that would join the national team).

 

Then we brought in coach Pavlidis and won the World Cup and now World Championships too! It's funny because he said when they did the first practice in the pool in Singapore, the technicians were testing the electronic boards and had a test graphic saying Greece were world champions. The girls wanted to take photos of it and Pavlidis said they will only take photos when it becomes a reality that we are world champions 

 

Tricha being on the all-tournament team and being the top scorer of the tournament is very good because she was not even selected for our team for Paris 2024 and now one year later at 20 yo she became such a star!

 

Stamatopoulou also played so well in goal throughout the tournament. In a way I think Diamantopoulou's unexpected retirement helped her. They are both very strong goalkeepers and would take turns in goal for the national team. Now that Stamatopoulou has become the main goalkeeper, she has become more consistent and reliable. (Also our backup goalkeeper, Tzourka, is also impressive because she is 28 yo and was never on this national team or any national team at the youth levels until now, which is crazy because we had such strong youth national teams in the last 15 or so years and she emerged as the strongest goalkeeper after Stamatopoulou)

 

In addition to Tricha and Santa, and the usual suspects like Xenaki, Myriokefalitaki, E.Plevritou, I want to add that Giannopoulou and V.Plevritou have also really stepped up the last couple of years. V.Plevritou seemed for so long to be in the shadows of her sisters and wouldn't even get called up to the national team, and now she has become one of our most important players! And yes, they are only "sisters" and not as the world feed commentator calls them "the triplets from Thessaloniki" because they are not triplets or twins and they were all born in different years 

 

Also, two of our girls had their birthday yesterday on the day of the final, Tzourka and Sofia Tornarou! 

 

So in the end, we are looking much more promising than anticipated with an even younger and stronger team than last year. Our oldest players are 28, and we have an average age of 23!

[MatiReimundo 508]

Final Results:

 

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

 

Group Stage:

 

Group A:

 

1st - () / 34-2  ; 19-15  ; 15-6  

2nd - () / 14-9  ; 32-5  

3rd - () / 22-7

4th - ()

 

Group B:

 

1st - () / 15-7  ; 11-9  ; 26-3

2nd - () / 25-6  ; 13-7  

3rd - () / 29-9

4th - ()

 

Group C:

 

1st - () / 10-9  ; 33-13  ; 22-6  

2nd - () / 31-7  ; 25-15  

3rd - () / 25-12

4th - ()

 

Group D:

 

1st - () / 23-4  ; 23-6  ; 16-7  

2nd - () / 12-9  ; 12-3  

3rd - () / 13-6  

4th - ()

 

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

 

13-16th Place Semifinals and Positions:

 18-9  

 16-6  

 

15th Place Game:  8-4  

13th Place Game:  12-12 (4-2)  

 

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

 

Playoffs:

 13-11  

 14-9

 23-9

 23-10  

 

9-12th Place Semifinals and Positions:

 18-6

 20-12  

 

11th Place Game:  14-9  

9th Place Game:  10-6  

 

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

 

Quarterfinals:

 8-7  

 26-8

 12-9

 11-11 (4-2)  

 

5-8th Place Semifinals and Positions:

 21-17

 16-13  

 

7th Place Game:  20-15 

5th Place Game:  13-11 

 

Semifinals:

 14-10 

 15-9 

 

Third Place Game:  13-12 

 

FINAL:  12-9 

 

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

 

Statistics and Awards:

 

Statistics:

 

Top Goalscorers:

 

1st - Foteini Tricha  / 25

2nd - Yumi Arima  / 23

3rd - Chiara Ranalli  / 21

 

Awards:

 

All-Star Team:

 

Goalkeeper: Ioanna Stamatopoulou 

Field Players: Yumi Arima  / Emily Ausmus  / Agnese Cocchiere  / Rita Keszthelyi  / Foteini Tricha  / Morgan McDowall  

 

MVP: Rita Keszthelyi

Best Goalkeeper: Ioanna Stamatopoulou  

 

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

 

Podium Teams:

 

Greece  : Ioanna Stamatopoulou ; Eleftheria Plevritou ; Foteini Tricha ; Stefania Santa ; Athina Giannopoulou ; Eleni Xenaki ; Maria Patra ; Christina Siouti ; Vasiliki Plevritou ; Sofia Tornarou ; Maria Myriokefalitaki ; Alexia Evgenia Tzourka ; Dionysia Koureta ; Nefeli Anna Krassa

 

Hungary  : Boglarka Neszmely ; Vanda Valyi ; Eszter Varro ; Kinga Peresztegi-Nagy ; Nora Sumegi ; Dalma Domsodi ; Rita Keszthelyi ; Dora Leimeter ; Natasa Rybanska ; Kamilla Farago ; Krisztina Garda ; Luca Torma ; Panna Tiba ; Kata Hajdu

 

Spain  : Mariona Terre Marti ; Ariadna Ruiz ; Anni Espar ; Beatriz Ortiz ; Nona Perez ; Paula Crespi ; Elena Ruiz ; Paula Prats Rodriguez ; Daniela Moreno Perez ; Paula Camus ; Irene Gonzalez ; Paula Leiton ; Martina Terre ; Carlota Peñalver Granero

 

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

 

Extensive Results

Edited July 24, 2025 by MatiReimundo

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

13 hours ago, Makedonas said:

They just lost by 13 to Japan...

I know but we came close a couple a months ago and Japan are the best out of those 3, think we might be able to catch China if we keep developing - they're probably the worst of the 3 and are most likely to have a bad game in them.