GLIDERS NAME SQUAD TO HOST USA IN INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY TOURNAMENT

Since finishing sixth at the 2018 IWBF World Championships in Germany, the USA have had an injection of experienced 2016 Rio Paralympic campaigners in Rebecca Murray, Natalie Schneider, Megan Blunk and Darlene Hunter.

They are also coming off a gold medal at the IWBF Under-25 World Championships where they beat Australia in the final and will be bringing their strongest possible line-up to take on the Gliders.

For Australia, Annabelle Lindsay will back up from a very strong performance at the IWBF Under-25 World Championships where she helped the Devils claim a silver medal by finishing as the tournament’s leading scorer, sitting in the top 10 for rebounds and earning a spot in the All-Star Five.

In addition to Lindsay, the Gliders will be looking to high-point players Georgia Munro-Cook, Teisha Shadwell and Amber Merritt to provide more opportunities offensively while the mid-point line-up of Maryanne Latu, Georgia Inglis and Shelley Cronau will deliver flexibility in coach David Gould’s line-ups.

“This is a great opportunity for our Gliders to go up against one of the best teams in the world,” said Gould.

“USA will provide great competition which will give the Gliders opportunities to continue to work on our game style and structures.

“We will use this nine-day training camp and international series to work on different combinations and I’m really excited to have the whole squad together including some overseas players fighting for selection.”

During the international friendly series, the Gliders and USA will also split their squads into four teams to compete in the first 3×3 international wheelchair basketball tournament for either country.

Australia will utilise the international series as a selection camp for a tour of Tokyo in August for the Mitsubishi Electric Cup tournament.

“We will take a lot of learnings from the games against the USA which will also assist us with preparing and developing the group for the AOZ Qualifiers ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics,” said Gould.

The Australian Gliders squad for the international series vs. USA:

NAME	CLASSIFICATION	State / NIN
Natalie Alexander	2.5	Western Australia / WAIS
Georgia Bishop-Cash	4.0	Queensland / QAS
Shelley Cronau	2.5	Queensland / QAS
Jessica Cronje	4.0	New South Wales / NSWIS
Hannah Dodd	1.0	New South Wales / NSWIS
Mary Friday	1.0	Western Australia / WAIS
Georgia Inglis	2.5	Western Australia / WAIS
Maryanne Latu	2.5	New South Wales / NSWIS
Annabelle Lindsay	4.5	ACT / ACTAS
Isabel Martin	1.0	Victoria
Bree Mellberg	3.5	Victoria
Amber Merritt	4.5	Western Australia / WAIS
Georgia Munro-Cook	4.5	New South Wales / NSWIS
Taishar Ovens	1.0	Western Australia / WAIS
Ella Sabljak	1.0	Queensland / QAS
Teisha Shadwell	4.5	Victoria
STAFF	ROLE
David Gould	Head Coach	South Australia
Craig Campbell	Assistant Technical Coach	Victoria
Stephen Charlton	Assistant Coach	Western Australia
Anna Rich	Physiotherapist	Victoria
Cathy Lambert	Team Manager	South Australia
Murray Treseder	Gliders program lead	Western Australia
Karen Haddad	Performance Psychologist	NSWIS
Steph Shell	Recovery	AIS
Sarah Graham	Assistant Coach	NSWIS
Michael Speranza	S&C Program Lead	AIS
Kris Thiesfield	S&C Coach	University Sunshine Coast
Chloe Manuel	Physiotherapist	Victoria

The Australian Gliders schedule for the international series vs. USA (all times AEST):

June 28: Game 1 vs. USA at 2pm
June 29: Game 2 vs. USA at 10am
June 30: Game 3 vs. USA at 2.30pm
July 1: Game 4 vs. USA at 3pm
July 2: 3×3 international series vs. USA at 9.15am
July 3: Game 5 vs. USA at 10am
July 4: Game 6 vs. USA at 9am

The Australian Gliders have named their squad to host the USA women’s wheelchair basketball team over a six-game international series at Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence from June 26 – July 5.