Lewisville, TX – February 18 – The USA Women’s National Team kept up their dominant run at the FINA Women’s Intercontinental Tournament with a 19-2 win over Japan earlier tonight. Maggie Steffens (Danville, CA/Stanford/NYAC) scored four goals to lead a cavalcade of scorers while Sami Hill (Santa Barbara, CA/UCLA/Santa Barbara) recorded six saves and scored a full tank goal in the win. Team USA returns to action against Canada on Friday night at 7:20pm cst. In other action tonight it was Canada edging China 15-14 and Australia downing Brazil 15-3. For complete tourney information including box scores, recaps, schedules, rosters, live stats and live streaming information, click here.
The US jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead on goals from Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, CA/USC/NYAC), Maddie Musselman (Newport Beach, CA/Corona del Mar HS/CdM Aquatics) and Steffens in the first 1:38 of play. Rachel Fattal (Seal Beach, CA/UCLA/SOCAL) added a power play goal at 4:31 to extend the lead to 4-0 before Ayaka Takahashi got Japan on the board at the 4:08 mark. Aria Fischer (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach HS/NYAC) scored the first of her three goals pushing the US lead to 5-1 at 3:16. Steffens scored her second on the power play at 2:36 for a 6-1 lead. Aria Fischer then pumped in two consecutive goals for an 8-1 lead followed by a KK Clark(Menlo Park, CA/UCLA/NYAC) tally on the way to a 9-1 advantage after the first.
The score remained 9-1 until the 5:27 mark of the second quarter when Steffens scored her third goal of the night.Kaleigh Gilchrist (Newport Beach, CA/USC/NYAC) became the seventh US goal scorer at 3:30 for an 11-1 lead going into halftime.
Kiley Neushul (Goleta, CA/Stanford/Santa Barbara) opened the second half scoring with goal from out front at 5:54. Steffens added her fourth of the night on the power play at 4:21. Makenzie Fischer (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach HS/SET) upped the lead to 14-1 with her first goal at 2:34. Takahashi broke the Japan scoring drought with a wicked behind the back shot to cut the lead to 14-2 at the 1:40mark. Neushul’s second made it 15-2 to end the quarter.
Makenzie Fischer scored twice in 27 seconds midway through the fourth quarter to extend the US lead to 17-2. Hill thrilled the crowd when she pushed the score to 18-2 with a length of the pool shot that eluded Japananese goalie Miyuu Aoki. Neushul added her third of the night to close the scoring at 1:32 for a 19-2 lead.
Scoring – Scoresheet
USA 19 (9, 2, 4, 4) M. Steffens 4, A. Fischer 3, M. Fischer 3, K. Neushul 3, M. Musselman 1, R. Fattal 1, K. Clark 1, K. Gilchrist 1, K. Craig 1, S. Hill 1
JPN 2 (1, 0, 1, 0) A. Takahashi 2
Saves – USA – S. Hill 6 – JPN – R. Miura 6, M. Aoki 1
6×5 – USA – 4/8 – JPN – 0/4
Penalties – USA – 0/0 – JPN – 0/0
Swimming news courtesy of USA Water Polo.