Tokyo, Japan - July 30 - The U.S. Olympic Women's Water Polo Team closed out group play at the Tokyo Olympic Games with a flourish, defeating ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) 18-5 and making history in the process. It was a bounce back effort after a loss to Hungary on Wednesday, their first in the Olympic Games since 2008, and also a day for the record books. With her third goal of the match, team captain Maggie Steffens became the career leader in goals scored in Olympic women's water polo history. Moments later she added to it, giving her four goals for the match and 49 in her career. Steffens surpassed the previous mark of 47 set by Italy's Tania Di Mario. Stephania Haralabidis added to the scoring bonanza with four goals of her own while Ashleigh Johnson was stellar in net turning aside 16 shots. Team USA finishes group play at 3-1 and has a bye on August 1 as group play comes to a close. They await their opponent in the quarterfinal round on August 3. A replay of the win over ROC is available to stream by clicking here and will replay as part of Olympic coverage on NBC starting at 12pm et/9am pt and on NBCSN starting at 8pm et/5pm pt. More information on Team USA's quarterfinal opponent will be shared when available.
Team USA got to work early as
Makenzie Fischer opened the scoring less than three minutes into the match.
Alys Williams followed with her second goal in Tokyo a little over a minute
later for a 2-0 advantage. After ROC got on the board, Haralabidis started to
heat up, hitting first from the outside and then delivering on the counter
attack for two of the next three goals. In between that, Kaleigh Gilchrist
found the back of the net and by the time the first quarter came to a close the
United States built a 5-1 lead.
After Paige Hauschild started the
scoring in the second quarter, Steffens got her first goal of the match,
inching closer to the record and putting Team USA up 7-1. ROC returned fire
with two straight goals but Steffens was there to stop the run with a power
play goal for an 8-3 lead with 1:08 to go in the half. Rachel Fattal closed the
scoring moments later for a 9-3 edge at halftime.
Maddie Musselman opened a high
scoring third with a tally for 10-3 lead, setting the stage for Steffen's
record breaking goal. Less than a minute later Steffens got free in front of
the cage and buried the shot to set the new scoring mark. It didn't last long as moments later Steffens
hit again for her fourth of the match, the 49th in her Olympic career, giving
Team USA a 12-3 lead. Haralabidis, Hauschild and Jamie Neushul followed with
goals for Team USA. The Neushul goal was her first as an Olympian and Team USA
took a 15-4 lead to the fourth.
Makenzie Fischer scored early in the
fourth as Team USA cemented their victory. Scores followed by Haralabidis and
Hauschild en route to the 18-5 win. Power plays didn't play a huge role as Team
USA went 4/5 and ROC was 4/6. Neither side attempted a penalty shot.
Scoring - Stats
USA 18 (5, 4, 6, 3) M. Steffens 4, S.
Haralabidis 4, P. Hauschild 3, M. Fischer 2, A. Williams 1, M. Musselman 1, R.
Fattal 1, J. Neushul 1, K. Gilchrist 1
ROC 5 (1, 2, 1, 1) A. Simanovich 2,
E. Prokofyeva 1, A. Serzhantova 1, E. Ivanova 1
Saves - USA - A. Johnson 16 - ROC -
E. Golovina 7
6x5 - USA - 4/5 - ROC - 4/6
penalties - USA - 0/0 - ROC - 0/0
Flash Quotes
Maggie Steffens On Setting The Olympic
Record For Goals Scored In Women's Water Polo
"I think it's definitely really
cool for our sport and our team. Our team is constantly looking at ways to
propel the sport forward...As much as it's definitely cool and I appreciate it,
you can't have that without teammates, you can't have that without a pass, you
can't have that without even being able to play the sport with women who you
train with and dream with...As much as this is cool to have my name attached to
it, it's really about our team and our culture and the women that came before
me as well."
Greg Mescall
Director of Communications, USA Water
Polo
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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