Courtesy: USA Water Polo
ORANGE, Calif. – The USA Men’s National Team bounced back tonight with a 12-11 win over Italy in front of a sellout crowd at Chapman University. Team USA held off a strong fourth quarter rally from Italy that saw a four goal lead evaporate to just one. The victory gives Team USA a win after a two goal loss last night. Hannes Daube (Long Beach, CA/USC/North Irvine WPC) and Max Irving (Long Beach, CA/UCLA/NYAC) scored three goals each in the win with Drew Holland (Orinda, CA/Stanford/Olympic Club) posting 12 saves in net.
Team USA and Italy close out their exhibition series on Monday at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, CA at 11am pt. Tickets for the match are available by clicking here. The match will air live on Eleven Sports, Eleven Sports Twitch and YouTube.com/USAWP. To watch a replay of tonight’s USA-Italy match, click here.
Team USA took the lead first on a goal from Ben Hallock (Westlake Village, CA/Stanford/LA Premier) and would take a 4-2 lead after the first quarter. Italy clawed back to within one at 4-3 with 5:54 to play only to see Kyle Trush (Newport Beach, CA/UC Irvine/Newport WPF) score one of his two goals on the day to make it 5-3. After Italy tied the game at 6-6 towards the end of the first half, Trush came back with another goal to put Team USA up 7-6 at halftime.
Irving added to the lead with a goal to open the third to make it 8-6 and then later in the period he delivered another to push Team USA ahead 10-7 with 2:44 left in the period. After Italy closed to within 10-8, Marko Vavic (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA/USC/Trojan) capped the third period with a goal to make it 11-8 after three in favor of the United States. Team USA looked well on their way to victory early in the fourth quarter when Daube scored his final goal of the match to build a 12-8 lead. That would be the last goal the United States would muster. Italy would run off three straight goals to make it 12-11 with 1:43 to play in the match. They would get no closer as Holland and the USA defense would hang on to secure the victory.
Team USA went 3/12 on power plays and 4/4 on penalties while Italy was 3/12 on power plays and 2/2 on penalties.
Scoring
USA 12 (4, 3, 4, 1) H. Daube 3, M. Irving 3, M. Vavic 2, K. Trush 2, C. Ramirez 1, B. Hallock 1
ITA 11 (2, 4, 2, 3) F. Di Fulvio 4, N. Presciutti 3, O. Echenique 2, L. Bruni 1, M. Aicardi 1
Saves – USA – D. Holland 12 – ITA – F. Massaro 7. G. Nicosia 5
6×5 – USA – 3/12 – ITA 3/12
Penalties – USA – 4-4 – ITA – 2/2