Courtesy: USA Water Polo
Commerce, CA – May 25 – The USA Women opened up their three game exhibition series against Hungary with a 14-9 victory in front of a national TV audience on Tuesday night at Brenda Villa Aquatic Center. Jordan Raney, Stephania Haralabidis and Makenzie Fischer powered Team USA on offense with three goals each while Ashleigh Johnson stood tall in net with 14 saves.
The two teams will meet again at Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine, CA tomorrow May 26 at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. All three games in the series will also be shown live on ESPNU and the ESPN app. Live stats will also be provided by thefosh.net.
Team USA came storming out of the gates to start this one as Makenzie Fischer and Maddie Musselman struck to put the women up 2-0. Hungary would respond with a goal but Team USA kept rolling as Raney scored three goals in a row to put Team USA up 5-1 at the end of the first. Team USA continued to shut down Hungary in the second while also increasing their lead as Maggie Steffens fired in a goal followed by two more as the USA Women built their lead up to 8-1. From there the teams exchanged goals as Team USA led 10-3 at halftime.
Hungary quickly responded after halftime with two power play goals to cut the deficit to 10-5. Makenzie Fischer stopped the Hungarian run with a goal on the power play but Hungary didn’t give up as they outscored Team USA for the first time to cut the USA lead to 12-6. Hungary continued their momentum in the final quarter as they reeled off three straight goals including one from Krisztina Garda to trim Team USA’s lead to three at 12-9. Team USA regrouped though and stopped any thoughts of a Hungarian comeback as Haralabidis and Makenzie Fischer scored again to give the USA Women a 14-9 victory.
Team USA went 4/9 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while Hungary went 5/8 on power plays and 2/2 on penalties.
Scoring
USA 14 (5, 5, 2, 2)
HUN 9 (1, 2, 3, 3)
USA: J. Raney 3, S. Haralabidis 3, M. Fischer 3, M. Musselman 1, R. Fattal 1, M. Steffens 1, A. Fischer 1, K. Gilchrist 1
HUN: R. Keszthelyi 2, D. Leimeter 2, K. Garda 2, V. Valyi 1, A. Illes 1, N. Rybanska 1
Saves – USA – A. Johnson – 14 – HUN – A. Magyari – 5
6-on-5 – USA – 4/9 – HUN- 5/8
Penalties – USA 1/1 – HUN – 2/2
Referees – Danielle Dabbaghian, Amber Drury
