ZUMO Performance of the Week: USA Women Water Polo Team

Lima, Saturday August 10, 2019 - USA ’s players celebrate after being awarded with the gold medal in Water Polo at the Complejo Deportivo Villa Maria del Triunfo at the Pan American Games Lima 2019. Enrique Cuneo / Lima 2019 Mandatory credits: Lima 2019 ** NO SALES ** NO ARCHIVES **

After a handful of matches against decidedly inferior opponents, the USA women’s water polo team had Canada, a top-ten opponent, opposite them in the gold-medal match of the 2019 Pan American Games, and two players, including starter Rachel Fattal, missing from the line-up.

For any other team, this might have spelled disaster—or at least represented a speed bump in the road to victory. But not for the American women. With Fattal and Alys Williams out with an unspecified illness, Head Coach Adam Krikorian had the luxury of calling on Paige Hauschild, one of the best young players in the world—originally swapped off the roster because of an injury from the balcony collapse in Gwuangju. South Korea.

Throw in a tremendous amount of pride and drive that has characterized this group over the last four years, and the result was a 24-4 victory over a Canadian team that had just recently qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

[USA Women Advance to Fifth-Straight Pan American Water Polo Final, But Canada is Big Winner]

After the satisfying win, Krikorian took a moment to sum up just how motivated his group of exceptional women have been the past few months.

“It’s been a long summer for us—this is our 22nd game—and they wanted to make sure they finished on a strong note,” he said.

Not only did the U.S. win every one of those matches, they’ve now won 59-straight. The win in today’s Pan Am final is the program’s fifth title in a row.

For a disappointed David Paradelo, head coach of the Canadian women’s team, this loss is but a bump on the path to his program’s long-time prize: a berth at the Olympic Games. It had been 16 years—since 2003—that a women’s water polo team from Canada had earned an Olympic berth.

Congratulations to USA Women Water Polo on earning ZUMO’s Performance of the Week!

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