Courtesy: USA Water Polo
USA Men 13 Canada 11
LIMA, Peru – The USA Men’s National Team moved to 2-0 in group play with a key 13-11 victory over Canada on day two of competition at the Pan American Games. Johnny Hooper (Los Angeles, CA/California/LA Premier) scored five goals and Alex Wolf (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/Bruin) made 12 stops in net in the win.
Team USA closes out group play on Tuesday when they meet Venezuela at 6pm local time/4pm pacific. No live streaming is available but fans can follow @USAWP on Twitter for live match updates.
Ben Hallock (Westlake Village, CA/Stanford/LA Premier) opened the scoring for Team USA with a power play goal for a 1-0 lead. Canada countered moments later scoring three in a row to take an early 3-1 lead with 3:45 to play in the first. Team USA battled back scoring three straight to end the period, including two from Max Irving (Long Beach, CA/UCLA/Bruin) to take a 4-3 lead after the first quarter.
Both offenses cooled off in the second quarter as just two combined goals were scored. After Canada tied the match with 3:29 left in the half, Hooper came back with a score for a 5-4 lead at halftime. From a low-scoring second quarter the match moved to a high-scoring third with 10 combined goals. Team USA scored five of the first six goals to begin the quarter, including two from Hooper, to surge ahead 10-5 with 2:58 left in the quarter. Canada wasn’t done yet as they responded with three of the next four goals to make it an 11-8 match in favor of Team USA after three quarters.
After Canada drew to within two at 11-9 early in the fourth, Hooper came back with another goal to give Team USA a three-goal cushion at 12-9. Canada made one last push to get within a goal at 12-11 with 2:34 left but Hooper quieted the rally converting on a penalty shot for a 13-11 lead on the way to the victory.
Team USA went 8/14 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while Canada was 4/9 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties.
Scoring – Stats
USA 13 (4, 1, 6, 2) J. Hooper 5, B. Hallock 2, M. Irving 2, L. Cupido 1, H. Daube 1, A. Bowen 1, C. Ramirez 1
CAN 11 (3, 1, 4, 3) J. Cote 3, A. Gardijan 2, N. Constantin-Bicari 2, M. Halajian 2, G. Patterson 1, R. D’Souza 1
Saves – USA – A. Wolf 12 CAN – M. Radenovic 8
6×5 – USA – 8/14 – CAN 4/9
Penalties – USA – 1/1 – CAN 1/1
USA Women 20 Brazil 4
LIMA, Peru – The USA Women’s National Team earned their second straight win at the Pan American Games with a 20-4 victory over Brazil. Makenzie Fischer (Laguna Beach, CA/Stanford/SET) and Melissa Seidemann (Walnut Creek, CA/Stanford/NYAC) led the way with four goals each with Ashleigh Johnson (Miami, FL/Princeton/NYAC) recording six saves in net.
Team USA returns to action on Tuesday to close out group play when they meet Venezuela at 11am local time/9am pacific. No live streaming is available but fans can follow @USAWP on Twitter for live match updates. For more on the Pan American Games including schedules and results, click here.
It was a slow start for Team USA as they didn’t get on the board until 4:19 left in the first quarter on a goal from Maddie Musselman (Newport Beach, CA/UCLA/CdM Aquatics). Kiley Neushul (Isla Vista, CA/Stanford/NYAC) and Stephania Haralabidis (Athens, Greece/USC/NYAC) followed with goals for a 3-1 lead. Brazil broke through with a score late in the period and Team USA took a two goal lead into the second quarter.
Seidemann and Kiley Neushul pushed the lead to 5-1 in the second quarter before Brazil battled back with a goal at the 4:17 mark. Haralabidis delivered the next goal for Team USA pushing the advantage to 6-2 at halftime.
In the second half Team USA took control. They powered home seven goals in the third quarter started off by another from Seidemann. Makenzie Fischer had a big quarter racking up three goals in the period, including the last two, as Team USA took a 13-4 lead to the fourth. In the final eight minutes the United States put the match away with seven unanswered goals. Up 16-4 after a goal from Haralabidis, Rachel Fattal (Seal Beach, CA/UCLA/SOCAL) connected for a 17-4 lead. Then Seidemann returned to the scoring column with back-to-back goals in the span of two minutes to make it 19-4. Alys Williams (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/Huntington Beach WPF) finished things off with a goal in the final moments to secure the 20-4 victory.
Team USA went 5/8 on power plays and 2/2 on penalties with Brazil going 2/6 on power plays with no penalties attempted.
Scoring – Stats
USA 20 (3, 3, 7, 7) M. Fischer 4, M. Seidemann 4, S. Haralabidis 3, R. Fattal 3, K. Neushul 3, A. Williams 2, M. Musselman 1
BRA 4 (1, 1, 2, 0) V. Bahia 1, S. Ferreira 1, M. Duarte 1, G. Dias 1
Saves – USA – A. Johnson 6 – V. Chamorro 8
6×5 – USA – 5/8 – BRA 2/6
Penalties – USA – 2/2 – BRA – 0/0
Boooooooooo!