Debrecen, Hungary - June 20 - The USA Women's National Team opened their quest for a fourth straight FINA World Championship with a 24-2 win over South Africa earlier today in Hungary.
Stephania Haralabidis scored five goals with
Maggie Steffens adding four goals in the win.
Ashleigh Johnson and
Amanda Longan split time in net recording nine saves. Team USA returns to play on Wednesday against the Netherlands at 1:30pm et/10:30am pt. Live streaming is now available via the FINA YouTube page by
clicking here. For those in Europe, live streaming can be accessed by
clicking here. Post game stats will be available by
clicking here.
Team USA opened up a 7-0 lead in the first quarter powered by seven different scorers.
Maddie Musselman started the period with a goal and
Ava Johnson finished the quarter with a score to build a convincing lead early. In the second quarter the United States put the match away with 10 unanswered goals for a 17-0 edge at halftime. Haralabidis, Musselman and Steffens scored multiple times in the quarter. South Africa broke through with a goal in the third quarter but the United States added three more scores for a 20-1 lead going to the fourth. Haralabidis added two more goals in the fourth en route to the 24-2 win.
The United States went 7/10 on power plays and 1/1 on penalties while South Africa was 1/5 on power plays with no penalties attempted.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 24 (7, 10, 3, 4) S.Haralabidis 5, M. Steffens 4, M. Musselman 3, R. Neushul 3, T. Prentice 2, A. Johnson 2, R. Fattal 2, B. Weber 1, K. Gilchrist 1, D. Mammolito 1
RSA 2 (0, 0, 1, 1) E. Zondo 1, C. Meecham 1
Saves - USA - A. Johnson 5, A. Longan 4 - RSA - D. Passoni 4, M. Maartens 1
6x5 - USA - 7/10 - RSA - 1/5
Penalties - USA - 1/1 - RSA - 0/0
