Lewisville, TX – February 21 – The USA Women’s National Team picked up another gold medal, this time in Lewisville, Texas as they topped Australia 6-5 to win the FINA Women’s Intercontinental Tournament. The victory caps a 6-0 week for the United States where they clinched a berth to the FINA World League Super Final set for this June in China. Maddie Musselman (Newport Beach, CA/Corona del Mar HS/CdM Aquatics) scored three goals including the final tally for Team USA to pace the offense whileAshleigh Johnson (Miami, FL/Princeton/NYAC) recorded eight stops in net to earn the win.
Maggie Steffens (Danville, CA/Stanford/NYAC) was named tournament MVP with Australia’s Kelsey Wakefield earning top goalkeeping honors. Makenzie Fischer (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach HS/SET) and Australia’s Rowie Webster shared the high scoring award each tallying 13 goals. In other action it was China topping Canada 10-6 to claim third place and Brazil edging Japan 9-8 for fifth place.
With Brazil’s win, they are the final team to qualify for the FINA World League Super Final joining the top four finishers from Lewisville. This is an adjustment from a previous report that had stated only the top three teams plus China would qualify. For complete tournament results, recaps, stats and more, click here.
For the second straight match the United States got off to hot start against Australia asRachel Fattal (Seal Beach, CA/UCLA/SOCAL) opened the scoring with the first US goal at 5:23 with an assist fromKiley Neushul (Goleta, CA/Stanford/Santa Barbara). Aria Fischer (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach HS/NYAC) added a goal at 1:58 for a 2-0 lead. Musselman closed out the scoring in the first with a power play with :05 left in the quarter for a 3-0 lead.
Keesja Gofers got Australia on the board in the second quarter with a penalty shot at 7:24 and added a power play goal at 6:34 to cut the lead to 3-2. Fattal netted her second of the game at 4:46 to push the lead to 4-2. Nicola Zagame scored her first for Australia at 1:40to make it 4-3 USA going into halftime.
Musselman extended the lead to 5-3 with a power play goal at 5:54. Steffens hit the post on a penalty shot at 4:10 of the quarter leaving the margin at just two goals. Ashleigh Southern took advantage for Australia scoring on a power play at 3:52 to narrow the US lead to 5-4.
With the pressure mounting Musselman delivered again to start the quarter to give the US a 6-4 lead with 4:58 remaining. Southern then scored on a penalty shot for Australia with 3:51 to go to narrow the deficit to 6-5. The Aussies would get no closer as Team USA was able to force a steal late in the match to secure the victory.
Scoring
USA 6 (3, 1, 1, 1) M. Musselman 3, R. Fattal 2, A. Fischer 1
AUS 5 (0, 3, 1, 1) K. Gofers 2, A. Southern 2, N. Zagame 1
Saves – USA – A. Johnson 8 – AUS – K. Wakefield 10
6×5 – USA – 2/10 – AUS 2/6
Penalties – USA – 0/1 – AUS 2/2
Swimming news courtesy of USA Water Polo.
