Courtesy: USA Water Polo
San Juan Capistrano, CA – June 11 – The USA Men’s National Team lost to Australia 12-13 tonight at JSerra Catholic High School. Olympians Hannes Daube and Marko Vavic each scored four for Team USA while West Temkin tallied 12 saves in net. Team USA and Australia conclude this exhibition series Friday night at Chapman University at 10:00pm et/7:00pm pt. Tickets to the match are available here. The match will stream LIVE on Overnght with stats from 6-8 Sports.
Australia was the aggressor early as Marcus Berehulak could not be stopped. He scored the game’s first three goals for the visitors before Team USA got one back from Dominic Brown to make the score 3-1 in favor of the Aussies after one. The goals started flowing in the second quarter as Daube (2), Jake Ehrhardt, Nicolas Saveljic, and Vavic found the back of the cage for the United States while Matthew Byrnes, Milos Maksimovic (2), and Nathan Power dented the twine for the Sharks leaving the halftime score at 7-6 for the visitors.
Both offenses stayed hot in the third period. Maksimovic (2), Luke Pavillard, Jacob Mercep, and Power tallied scores for Australia opposite Daube (2) and Vavic (2) with two each and Kai Kaneko scoring his first goal at the Senior National Team level for the Americans who trailed 11-12 at the end of the third. In the final frame, the offensive firepower was snuffed out both ways as the defenses picked up momentum. Australia managed one goal from Pavillard on a counter attack with 4:41 to play and that is where things stood into the final minute as Temkin and Laurence Baker traded saves. Vavic cut the deficit to one late but the United States would run out of time to level the score as the Aussies came away with the 13-12 win.
Team USA went 4/11 on power plays and 3/3 on penalties while Australia went 2/8 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties.
Scoring – Stats
USA 12 (1, 5, 5, 1) H. Daube 4, M. Vavic 4, N. Saveljic 1, J. Ehrhardt 1, D. Brown 1, K. Kaneko 1
AUS 13 (3, 4, 5, 1) M. Maksimovic 4, M. Berehulak 3, L. Pavillard 2, N. Power 2, J. Mercep 1, M. Byrnes 1
Saves – USA – W. Temkin 12 – AUS – L. Baker 9, N. Porter 5
6×5 – USA – 4/11 – AUS – 2/8
Penalties – USA – 3/3 – AUS – 1/1
