Water Polo: Team USA women triumph
LOS ANGELES — Four players from Newport Beach participated in Sunday’s USA Water Polo Olympic Trials doubleheader against Australia at USC.
That number grows to five if you include Team USA women’s team captain Maggie Steffens, who is currently living with former Newport Harbor and USC star Kaleigh Gilchrist.
“I never was friends with her or anything like that during college,” said Gilchrist of Steffens, who played at Stanford. “She was my roomie my first national team trip in China, and so we just hit it off. She ended up moving into the little studio underneath my parents’ house. It’s been fun, definitely.”
Just don’t try to say that Steffens, the 2012 Olympics MVP who grew up in the Bay Area, is actually from Newport Beach.
“She tries to be a Newport local, but we don’t give her that much credit,” Gilchrist said with a laugh.
Gilchrist certainly had a homecoming of sorts Sunday as she came back to compete on the Trojans’ campus in front of a big crowd. She helped the Team USA women, a group that also includes former CdM star Maddie Musselman, beat Australia, 14-11, in the second game of the doubleheader.
The Aussie men beat Team USA, 8-6, in the first game. Former CdM and Cal star John Mann and ex-Newport Harbor standout Luca Cupido, who currently competes for the Golden Bears, both played for the U.S.
For the Team USA women, it was the first international game since winning the Olympic Qualification Tournament in March in the Netherlands. The Americans have already punched their trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this summer, but playing a tough team like Australia had its benefits as well.
“We’ve been playing ourselves the past month or so,” said Musselman, who had a goal, an assist, a steal and two drawn kickouts on Sunday. “We were dying to play another team, especially a big rival of ours. It’s obviously great competition. It’s definitely a good opportunity, especially going into the Olympic Games, because they’ll be there as well ... They’re feisty competitors, and so are we.”
Former Laguna Beach High star Makenzie Fischer led Team USA with three goals, while Gilchrist, Steffens, Courtney Mathewson and Rachel Fattal each had two goals each. Ashleigh Johnson made nine saves in the cage, helping Team USA, the top-ranked team in the world, stay undefeated at 16-0 this season.
Team USA, which led at halftime by a 10-7 count, never trailed. Australia cut the lead to two goals late in the third quarter when Hannah Buckling scored a power play goal. But Team USA answered, as Musselman drew a penalty shot that Steffens converted with seven seconds remaining in the quarter. That pushed the U.S. lead back to 13-10 after three quarters.
Buckling cut the Aussies’ deficit to two again with an outside strike early in the fourth quarter, but Gilchrist answered inside with the game’s final goal, assisted by Steffens, with 4:26 left to play.
The United States women were especially crisp on the power play, where they converted eight of 10 chances, including all seven in the first half.
“It’s always good to draw six-on-fives and even better to convert on them,” said Gilchrist, who added an assist and a drawn kickout in the game. “That’s something that we’ve kind of struggled with [against] this team, so it was great to see the ball go in the net. Hopefully we’ll keep that up the rest of the series and continue to improve on it.”
Yes, Team USA will play Australia twice more this week in California. The teams face off Tuesday at Fresno State before traveling to Orange County, where they’ll play Thursday at Beckman High at 7 p.m. Next on the schedule is the FINA World League Super Final, which begins June 7 in China.
Though both the women’s and men’s teams have qualified for the Olympics, neither has announced its Olympic roster yet.
“These games are big for all of us, trying to battle it out for a spot,” Gilchrist said. “You definitely want to perform. At the end of the day, all 17 people are a part of this team. I know that 13 people make the [Olympic] roster, but everyone here has put in the time and the effort.”
The Team USA men also put in the effort, but fell short against Australia after winning in the teams’ last two meetings. The Americans had beat Australia, 10-9, to win the FINA Intercontinental Tournament on May 14, with Cupido scoring the game-winning goal with two seconds left. Team USA also beat Australia in a game in Claremont, 12-11 in a shootout, on Friday.
Sunday’s game was frustrating for the United States, which converted just one of 12 power-play opportunities.
“We just didn’t execute our set pieces and plays, run the plays we’re supposed to run,” said Mann, who scored Team USA’s first goal of the contest and drew three kickouts. “If we had attacked the cage like we usually do, then we get those results. We weren’t aggressive. We didn’t attack.”
Cupido had two goals and also drew three kickouts for Team USA, which fell behind 2-0 after the opening quarter and never led. Nikola Vavic, captain Tony Azevedo and Alex Bowen also scored for the Americans.
Joe Kayes and Joel Campbell led Australia with three goals each.
“We know each other pretty good right now,” Cupido said. “We know their strengths. Today, they deserved to win. We were just rushing our decisions ... we have to mature and control the game better. They were taking advantage of our mistakes on offense and scoring back on the counterattack.”
Both players still said the enjoyed the atmosphere at Sunday’s doubleheader. Mann’s girlfriend flew in from New York to watch, he said.
The Team USA men will leave next week for training in Europe, Mann said. The FINA World League Super Final for the men is also in China, and it begins June 21.
“We have to take the bigger step to get ready for Rio,” Cupido said. “The next month will be crucial for us.”
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Twitter: @mjszabo
