Courtesy: USA Water Polo
San Diego, CA – May 29 – The USA Women played Hungary for the third time, coming away with a 12-6 victory on Saturday afternoon at Cathedral Catholic High School. Maddie Musselman powered the USA Women on offense with three goals while Gabby Stone and Amanda Longan split time in net recording four and seven saves respectively.
The two teams will meet for the final time on Wednesday, June 2 at 6:00 PM PT at El Segundo Aquatic Center. This game will be shown live on ESPNU and the ESPN app. Live stats will also be provided by thefosh.net.
It was a tight defensive first quarter with lots of shot blocks by both teams but Jordan Raney found the breakthrough for Team USA and a 1-0 lead. Musselman added another on the penalty shot as Team USA took a narrow 2-0 lead at the end of the first. The United States offense came to life in the second as Stephania Haralabidis and Paige Hauschild both got on the board to push the USA lead to 4-0. Hungary then got their first on the power play from Anna Illes but Team USA replied with two more goals as they continued to increase their advantage, eventually taking a 7-2 halftime lead.
Hungary quickly scored the first goal of the third quarter to make it 7-3 but once again Team USA had all the answers to solve the Hungarian defense as they rattled off three more goals with Jamie Neushul finishing things off to increase the lead to 10-3. Hungary then fired in a late one from deep as Team USA led 10-4 at the end of the third quarter. Hungary continued that late momentum into the fourth as they scored two goals to get within 10-6 but that was as close as they would get. Captain Maggie Steffens and Musselman scored late in the quarter as the USA Women prevailed 12-6.
Team USA went 2/9 on power plays and 1/1 on penalty shots while Hungary went 1/8 on power plays and did not attempt a penalty.
Scoring
USA 12 (2, 5, 3, 2)
HUN 6 (0, 2, 2, 2)
USA: M. Musselman 3, R. Fattal 2, M. Seidemann 1, P. Hauschild 1, M. Steffens 1, S. Haralabidis 1, J. Neushul 1, M. Fischer 1, J. Raney 1
HUN: A. Illes 2, R. Parkes 1, B. Horvath 1, V. Valyi 1, D. Szilagyi 1
Saves – USA – A. Longan – 7 – G. Stone – 4 – HUN – E. Gangl – 7
6-on-5 – USA – 2/9 – HUN- 1/8
Penalties – USA 1/1 – HUN – 0/0