Fischer’s golden summer
It’s been a long haul and demanding road for Makenzie Fischer, but the Laguna Beach athlete twice found gold at the end of that journey.
For 38 days, the 18-year-old, who graduated from Laguna Beach High in June, had been out of town, the state and the country, taking on all comers in women’s international water polo competition. Fischer, a member of the USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team, played in two major tournaments on two continents in the past month. Each ended with gold medal-winning performances for Team USA.
The most recent conquest came last week in Kazan, Russia. Team USA won the FINA World Championships tournament title Aug. 7 by edging the Netherlands, 5-4, in the gold-medal match.
Team USA won the tournament for the fourth time in 12 years and is the reigning Olympic, World, World Cup, World League, and Pan Am Games champion, a first for any national program in women’s international water polo.
Fischer, a defender, scored six goals to go with three assists and three steals at the World Championships.
“I thought it was really tough competition,” Fischer said. “We played well and I was happy with the way I played. We had our backs to the wall early but we really stuck together and upped our game to win it.”
Team USA started the tournament in group play. The U.S. cruised to a 13-2 victory over Brazil with Fischer scoring twice. The squad then lost its first match in a major competition when it dropped an 11-9 decision to Italy, where Fischer scored late in the game.
“It was a bummer at the time, but we came back strong,” Fischer said. “We knew that we could not lose again and knew it was a do-or-die situation after that loss. We had some close games after that game.”
Team USA rallied and closed out group play by sprinting past Japan, 17-2. In a qualification match, it downed Hungary, 12-7, to move on to the semifinals. The U.S. earned a spot in the gold-medal match by taking an 8-5 quarterfinal victory from rival Spain and an 8-6 semifinal win over Australia.
Fischer scored twice against Japan and once against Australia.
“It was great to get that gold medal after losing early,” Fischer said.
The World Championships followed on the heels of the Pan Am Games in Toronto, Canada. Team USA rolled to the tournament title with victories over Mexico (25-3), Cuba (18-3) and Argentina (30-3) in pool play, Brazil (16-3) in the semifinals, and Canada (13-4) in the gold-medal match.
Fischer scored single goals against Mexico and Brazil, three against Cuba, and five against Argentina.
“It was really cool,” Fischer said of the tournament. “They had a athlete-like village, just like the Olympics. The experience of getting to play all these teams was great and I thought we played so well in the tournament.”
Once the Pan Am Games were complete July 14, Team USA went from Canada to Madrid, Spain, to train for a week. Then, it was off to Russia for the FINA World Championships.
Fischer returned home from the 38-day whirlwind Sunday, but she was staying put in Laguna for but a few days. She was to leave Thursday for a trip to Hawaii which would provide much-needed R&R. She said she’ll savor it, as the national team heads back into training Aug. 24.
The Stanford University commit said she is taking the 2015-16 school year off to train with the national team, and will head to Palo Alto for classes in the fall of 2016. Her goal, she said, is to be play in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil.
The top four teams to emerge from a qualifying tournament next March in the Netherlands will earn a spot in the Olympics.