USA Women Open Final Exhibition Series Before Tokyo With Commanding 14-4 Victory Over Russia

Irvine, CA - Fresh off learning who was named to the Tokyo Olympic roster the USA Women opened up a three game exhibition series against Russia with a 14-4 victory in front of a national TV audience and packed crowd on Saturday night at Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine, CA. Team USA's offense featured a balanced scoring attack with Maddie Musselman, Melissa Seidemann, Rachel Fattal, Aria Fischer, Makenzie Fischer and Alys Williams each scoring twice while Ashleigh Johnson stood strong in net recording 13 saves. 
 
The two teams will meet once again at Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine, CA on Monday, July 5 at 3:00 PT. To re-watch this game click here. To buy tickets for Monday's game click here. This game will also be shown live on ESPNU and the ESPN app. Live stats will also be provided by thefosh.net. For more on the series click here.
 
The USA Women came storming out of the gates to start this one as Musselman and Aria Fischer scored back to back goals to put Team USA up 2-0. Russia would answer with a goal of their own but the USA Women scored two more goals to take a 4-1 lead at the end of the first. It was a similar story in the second as Team USA's offense was too much for the Russians to handle. First Fattal scored off a great pass from Maggie Steffens and then Team USA followed it up with three more goals with Fattal ending the run with another goal to put Team USA up 8-1 at halftime. 
 
Musselman scored again to start the third to push Team USA's lead to 8 but the Russians didn't give up as they closed the quarter on a 3-1 run led by two goals from Evgeniya Soboleva to close within 10-4 at the end of the third. The Russians tried to take their momentum into the final quarter but the USA Women had other ideas as Ashleigh Johnson continued to come up with several big saves to keep Russia off the board. While on the offensive side Team USA scored four more goals led by two goals from Williams as the USA Women prevailed 14-4.
 
Team USA went 6/9 on power plays and 2/4 on penalties while Russia went 0/6 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties. 
 
Scoring
USA 14 (4, 4, 2, 4)
RUS 4 (1, 0, 3, 0)
USA: M. Musselman 2, M. Seidemann 2, R. Fattal 2, A. Fischer 2, M. Fischer 2, A. Williams 2, S. Haralabidis 1, J. Neushul 1
RUS: E. Soboleva 2, E. Prokofyeva 1, A. Simanovich 1
 
Saves - USA - A. Johnson - 13 - RUS - E. Golovina - 11
6-on-5 - USA - 6/9 - RUS- 0/6
Penalties - USA 2/4 - RUS - 1/1
Referees - Danielle Dabbaghian & Jenn McCall