Bermuda's young hockey players endured a tough time in their opening group matches at the first ever Pan-American Youth Championships at the Carrasco Polo Club in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The tournament is a qualifier for the World Youth Olympics to be held in Singapore later this year.

The squad, the youngest in the tournament, lost their opening match to the USA 11-0 before also succumbing to the host nation 8-0 on Sunday.

With a large crowd on hand to support the home team, Bermuda were behind 6-0 at the break after being punished for their mistakes.

The second half was more encouraging for the Island team as they were able to adjust to the speed of the Uruguay players and conceded just two more goals.

Bermuda had to play one girl down for several minutes towards the end of the game as a result of a yellow card.

In their opening match on Saturday, they faced a very strong United States side and could have conceded more goals had it not been for a strong defensive effort from the goalkeeper, vice-captain Latonia Fray, who managed to save a total of 33 shots.

The defenders had to face 24 penalty corners and their opponents managed to convert only four into goals.

Although the score was 11-0, it took the Americans 22 minutes to score in the second half as the Bermuda girls continued to put up a fight.

The next game will be today when Bermuda finish their pool matches against third seeds Chile.

After the pool matches Bermuda will play two qualification matches on Thursday and Saturday, probably against Mexico and Paraguay, before embarking on a 28-hour return to Bermuda on Sunday.