The Australian women won all five matches in the preliminary phases of the competition, the team eyeing gold ahead of the quarter-finals.

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Instead the Hockeyroos will leave Japan empty-handed after a 1-0 loss to India on Monday afternoon.

The exit extends a lean run for the Australian women at the Olympics, their last medal a gold in Sydney 21 years ago.

The Hockeyroos endured a horror build-up to the Tokyo Games, Katrina Powell stepping into as coach in late March after accusations of bullying and a toxic culture within the squad.

With five wins to open the tournament, it seemed Powell had united a team that was divided just six months ago.

Instead, the quarter-final loss matches the disappointment of Rio and will likely lead to more soul-searching within the Australian hockey setup.

The devastation was etched on the players' faces after the game and Edwina Bone said it was not the way they expected their tournament would end.

"There's all sorts of emotions that are going on," Bone said. "Disappointment, but I'm still really proud of the way that we played today.

"We came in with lots of momentum, we created lots of opportunities and unfortunately that's how sport goes sometimes. It can be cruel and today just wasn't our day unfortunately."

Australia played like a side unfamiliar with the pressure of elimination hockey, the team nervous and stilted throughout a tense encounter.

Despite losing their first three games, the Indians have found form at the back end of the tournament with back-to-back wins and they were full of confidence.

In the end, many of the warning signs from the pool games came back to hurt the Hockeyroos.

The struggles from the penalty corner continued in the quarter-final, Australia 0-9 on Monday. India's lone goal came from their only penalty corner of the match.

The Hockeyroos also couldn't break through in general play, a trend that emerged in their first five games of the tournament.

Australia had 17 penetrations into the attacking circle, generating 14 shots on goal. Crucially, none were able to find the back of the net, the only stat that matters after 60 minutes.

India's game-winning strike came in the 22nd minute, just the second goal the Hockeyroos have conceded all tournament.

The goal also marked the first time Australia have trailed in Tokyo, and in the end it was a deficit they could not overcome, India securing their fifth victory over the Hockeyroos from 42 encounters.

For Ambrosia Malone, it was terrible timing for things to go wrong.

"It just felt like one of those days where things just weren't really going our way and some of the chances that we got in other games would have gone in," Malone said.

"I think we still persisted and worked really hard, but I guess that's sport and at the end of the day India had one chance there with a short corner and put it away, and we just couldn't do that today."