Princeton, NJ - December 16 - The USA Women's National Team held off a rally from Russia to win 9-5 while the Netherlands used a strong second half to cruise past Canada 17-8 on the opening night of the 2019 Holiday Cup in Princeton, New Jersey. DeNunzio Pool is playing host to high level women's water polo all week long and the first two games a high scoring affair and a defensive battle. Ilse Koolhaas delivered four goals to power the Netherlands past Canada despite three goals from Canadian and University of the Pacific star, Kyra Christmas. In the nightcap, Team USA saw Princeton grad
Ashleigh Johnson (Miami, FL/Princeton/NYAC) shine bright in her return to campus, piling up 12 saves including a penalty shot stop, on the way to victory.
Maddie Musselman (Newport Beach, CA/UCLA/CdM Aquatics) and
Kiley Neushul (Isla Vista, CA/Stanford/NYAC) added two goals each to bolster the offense.
Team USA built a 2-1 lead in the first quarter and pushed it to 3-1 after one on a goal from
Jordan Raney (Manhattan Beach, CA/Stanford/Huntington Beach WPF). The United States went up 4-1 in the second quarter on a
Melissa Seidemann (Walnut Creek, CA/Stanford/NYAC) goal and that was their advantage at halftime. Neushul made it 6-2 with a goal with 5:07 left in the third quarter and Team USA seemed to be pulling away. Russia had other ideas as they scored two straight goals to make it 6-4 with 7:26 left in the match. Evgeniia Soboleva made it 7-5 moments later but Russia would get no closer. Neushul and Musselman scored again along with a penalty shot stop for Johnson on the way to the victory.
The Holiday Cup continues on Tuesday when Italy enters the fray, taking on Russia at 5:30pm et followed by Team USA meeting the Netherlands at 7:00pm et. Live coverage is available of both matches on For The Fans/Eleven Sports and at Facebook.com/USAWP. Live stats of all matches are available at TheFOSH.net. For complete Holiday Cup schedule,
click here. Watch on Eleven Sports Network (Century Link: 646) ,
http://FTFNext.com or Download the app (
http://bit.ly/2JoEgJE )
Scoring
USA 9 (3, 1, 2, 3) M. Musselman 2, K. Neushul 2, J. Neushul 1, K. Gilchrist 1, M. Fischer 1, J. Raney 1, M. Seidemann
RUS 5 (1, 0, 2, 2) E. Karimova 1, M. Borisova 1, O. Gorbunova 1, A. Simanovich 1, E. Soboleva 1
Saves - USA - A. Johnson 12 - RUS - A. Karnaukh 7
6x5 - USA - 2/7 - RUS 1/10
Penalties - USA 1/2 - RUS 0/1
