LIMA (Peru) - With the spectacular Villa Deportiva Nacional complex is the setting for six national teams from North America, South America and Oceania - Argentina, Australia, Canada Colombia, Brazil, USA - all competing for four spots to the FINA Women's Water Polo World League Super Finals, we wanted to check in with the players. Here's what four of them had to say before the first pass of the FINA Women’s World League Intercontinental Cup had been thrown. 

Leticia Belorio, Brazil 

The 21-year-old Belorio comes into the Intercontinental Cup with early national team experience at the FINA World Championships Budapest 2017 followed up by helping Brazil earn the women's water polo bronze at the 18th Pan American Games 2019.

"I hope Brazil manages to play good games and that we achieve our biggest goal, which is qualifying for the Budapest World Championship. I am prepared to do my best and contribute to the team."

Amy Ridge, Australia

The 25-year-old Ridge helped lead the Stingers to the silver at the last Intercontinental Cup. Ridge and her teammates followed this up with a bronze medal performance one year later at the 18th FINA World Championships 2019 in Gwangju (KOR). 

"It’s exciting to be back playing in the green and gold with a mixture of some fresh faces and experience both in our team and in our opponents. We can’t wait to kick off a new cycle tomorrow with our game against Argentina."

Kindred Paul, Canada

 A competitive swimmer and transitioned to water polo at age 8, Paul helped Canada earn the silver medal at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima which secured the team’s ticket to Tokyo 202o. In her Olympic debut, Paul scored two goals as Canada finished seventh. 

"These are the first official games for our team since Tokyo, so we are very excited to come back as a team and play together again. The Intercontinental Cup will give us a great opportunity to play against teams we will see this summer, as well as start giving international experience to our younger players. We need to use every game here to prepare for World Championships this summer, it’s so great that Budapest was able to step up and host, the atmosphere there is unbeatable."

Amanda Longan, USA 

The Team USA goalkeeper Longan comes into the Intercontinental Cup with the golden experience of standing on the top podium step of women's water polo competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the past two editions of the FINA World Championships.

"I think we're going to learn a lot this week. We're really a young group so my expectations are for them to, one, feel the pressure of what it's like to be part of the senior team and go up against other senior national teams members from around the world and learn how we can get better, all together." 

Longan also looks ahead to the Super Finals and the FINA World Championships:

"I'm excited these (competitions) are still on and we're ready to rock again. It's been a while since we've all been together. It's nice to have fresh faces in the mix with girls from the past quad and to just play some really good water polo. It's a growing process for 2024."