Courtesy: USA Water Polo
Tbilisi, Georgia – June 28 – The USA Men’s National Team closed out group play at the FINA World League Super Final at 2-1 following a 13-9 win over Georgia earlier today. Hannes Daube and Max Irving paced the offense with three goals each while Drew Holland went the distance in net recording 11 stops. Irving was named player of the game. Team USA will meet France in quarterfinal play on Tuesday at 6:45am et/3:45am pt. Live stats will be available for each match by clicking here, with live streaming available of the semifinal (Wednesday) and final day (Thursday) of competition via FloSports, by clicking here (subscription required).
Georgia took the early lead in the first quarter only to see Team USA respond quickly with three straight goals. Irving scored twice, Daube added another and Team USA built a 3-1 lead after the first quarter. Georgia drew to within a goal early in the second quarter but Irving and Dylan Woodhead answered for a 5-2 advantage with 6:19 to go in the first half. Georgia’s Marko Jelaca followed with one of his team-high three goals on the day to make it 5-3 but the United States had an immediate answer. Alex Bowen, Alex Obert and Ben Stevenson scored in succession to make it an 8-3 USA lead at halftime.
Two Georgia goals to open the third quarter cut the lead down to 8-5 but Daube and Obert came back with goals for a 10-5 edge with 3:51 left in the third. Georgia scored the last goal of the third quarter and the first goal of the fourth quarter to get a little closer at 10-7 with 6:02 remaining. Ben Hallock, Daube and Bowen silenced any further rally, scoring three of the next five goals to secure the four goal victory.
Team USA went 6/13 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while Georgia went 8/13 on power plays with no penalties attempted.
Scoring – Stats
USA 13 (3, 5, 2, 3) M. Irving 3, H. Daube 3, A. Obert 2, A. Bowen 2, B. Hallock 1, D. Woodhead 1, B. Stevenson 1
GEO 9 (1, 2, 3, 3) M. Jelaca 3, B. Vapenski 2, R. Imnaishvili 2, G. Magrakvelidze 1, N. Shushiashvili 1
Saves – USA – D. Holland 11 – GEO I. Razmadze 4
6×5 – USA – 6/13 – GEO – 8/13
Penalties – USA – 1/1 – GEO – 0/0
