USA Women Complete Sweep of Hungary with 10-7 Win

Photo Courtesy: Jared Gray/USA Water Polo

Bronx, NY – July 2 – The U.S. Olympic Women’s Water Polo Team completed a three game sweep of Hungary on the East Coast with a 10-7 win earlier today at Fordham University’s Messmore Aquatic Center. Maggie Steffens (Danville, CA/Stanford/NYAC) scored three goals to pace the offense while Ashleigh Johnson (Miami, FL/Princeton/NYAC) posted eight saves in net in the victory. To watch a replay of any of the three games from the USA-Hungary series, click here.

Hungary started strong in this match taking the lead in the opening minutes on the first of two goals on the day from Rita Keszthelyi with 6:17 to play in the first quarter. Steffens returned fire not long after to even the match at 1-1. Hungary went up 2-1 only to see KK Clark (Menlo Park, CA/UCLA/NYAC) come back with a score at the 3:17 mark to tie the game at 2-2 going to the second quarter.

Team USA kept the offense going in the second quarter as they continued a 3-0 run to take their first lead of the afternoon on goals from Kiley Neushul (Goleta, CA/Stanford/Santa Barbara) and Steffens to go ahead 4-2 with 4:25 left in the first half. Keszthelyi broke the run with a score with 1:08 left in the half to leave Team USA up 4-3 going into the break.

Steffens came out firing in the third quarter with her third goal of the day followed by a tally from Courtney Mathewson (Anaheim Hills, CA/UCLA/NYAC) for a 6-3 advantage with 5:12 to play in the period. Hungary rallied scoring three of the next five goals to keep pace in the matching trailing just 8-6 going into the final eight minutes.

The United States closed the game in strong fashion starting with a Maddie Musselman (Newport Beach, CA/Corona del Mar HS/CdM Aquatics) power play strike with 6:36 left in the match leaving Team USA up 9-6. After Hungary’s Dora Antal scored to make it 9-7, Kami Craig (Santa Barbara, CA/USC/NYAC) put a cap on the match with a goal from in close for a 10-7 with just 2:31 to play.

Team USA went 3/11 on power plays and 2/2 on penalty shots while Hungary went 1/8 on power plays and 1-1 on penalty shots.

Next up for Team USA will be a three game series with Russia starting July 21 at Cathedral Catholic. See below to purchase tickets for any match in the Russia series.
7/21 – Cathedral Catholic – San Diego, CA – 6pm – Tickets
7/24 – UCLA – Los Angeles, CA – 2pm – Tickets
7/27 – Stanford (in between Junior Olympics Session 1 and 2) – Palo Alto, CA – 7pm – Tickets

Scoring
USA 10 (2, 2, 4, 2) M. Steffens 3, M. Musselman 1, R. Fattal 1, K. Clark 1, K. Neushul 1, K. Gilchrist 1, K. Craig 1
HUN 7 (2, 1, 3, 1) R. Keszthelyi 2, N. Somhegyi 1, D. Antal 1, H. Kisteleki 1, A. Illes 1, B. Bujka
Saves – USA A. Johnson 8 – HUN – O. Kaso 3
6×5 – USA – 3/11 – HUN – 1/8
Penalties – USA – 2/2 – HUN – 1/1

USA Water Polo contributed to this report.

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