The USA Women’s National Team advanced to the gold medal game of the FINA World League Super Final after a 13-4 victory over Australia. Rachel Fattal(Seal Beach, CA/UCLA/SOCAL) scored three goals in the victory and Sami Hill (Santa Barbara, CA/UCLA/SBWPF) picked up the victory in net. Team USA is back in action tomorrow in the title match meeting Italy at 1:30pm local time/10:30pm pacific time tonight. The match will be streamed live through FINA TV and that can be accessed by clicking here.
The USA Women were in control of the semifinal match from the start. They opened up a 4-0 lead in the first period on scores from Alys Williams (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/HBWPC),Makenzie Fischer (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach HS/SET), KK Clark (Menlo Park, CA/UCLA/NYAC), and Fattal. They kept at it in the second period going ahead 7-0 before Australia would break through with their first goal. Australia would score two straight but Fattal answered with a score to leave Team USA ahead 8-2 at halftime.
Team USA added three more goals in the third period on strikes from Kiley Neushul (Goleta, CA/Stanford/SBWPF), Maggie Steffens (Danville, CA/Stanford/Diablo), and Jillian Kraus (Santa Ana, CA/UCLA/SOCAL). Australia scored once but the United States held an 11-3 lead going to the fourth period. The United States closed out the match on goals from Fischer and Neushul to take the match in convincing fashion at 13-4.
The United States went 4/6 on power plays while Australia went 2/12 with neither side attempting a penalty shot. “I don’t think we got Australia’s best game today, but we are happy to be playing in the final nonetheless,” said USA Head Coach Adam Krikorian.
Scoring
USA 13 (4, 4, 3, 2) R. Fattal 3, M. Steffens 2, M. Fischer 2, K. Neushul 2, A. Williams 1, K. Clark 1, K. Craig 1, J. Kraus 1
AUS 4 (0, 2, 1, 1)
6×5 – USA – 4/6 – AUS 2/12
Penalties – USA 0/0 – AUS 0/0
Swimming News / Water Polo News courtesy of USA Water Polo.