Budapest, Hungary - June 28 - The USA Women's National Team earned a spot amongst the final four teams at the FINA World Championships with a 13-8 win over Spain earlier today in Hungary.
Stephania Haralabidis scored six goals with
Maddie Musselman adding five in the win as well.
Ashleigh Johnson recorded 11 saves in the cage including a penalty shot block. Team USA returns to play in the semifinals on Thursday against Italy at 10am et/7am pt. Live streaming is available via the FINA Facebook page ($PPV) by
clicking here. For those in Europe, live streaming can be accessed by
clicking here. Post game stats will be available by
clicking here.
Musselman and Haralabidis got things started for Team USA in the first quarter as Musselman scored 24 seconds into the game and then both women converted 6-on-5 chances to keep pace with Spain after one, 3-3. Haralabidis and Musselman traded goals with Spain to begin the second quarter before
Maggie Steffens joined the party late in the half to give the Americans a 6-5 advantage at the break. Johnson also came up with a huge penalty shot stop late in the first half to preserve the one goal edge.
Haralabidis came out of the break firing and pushed the lead to 8-5 with back-to-back goals. She was aided by a pair of goals from Musselman and a player advantage conversion by
Tara Prentice in the third period to give Team USA a 11-8 lead headed to the fourth. In the final frame, the United States turned up the defensive pressure. Spain went scoreless over the final eight minutes as Haralabidis capped off her huge day with another pair of goals to lead the Americans to the 13-8 win.
The United States went 5/11 on power plays and 1/1 on penalty shots while Spain went 3/13 on power plays and 0/1 on penalty shots.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 13 (3, 3, 5, 2) S.Haralabidis 6, M. Musselman 5, M. Steffens 1, T. Prentice 1
ESP 8 (3, 2, 3, 0) J. Forca Ariza 2, M. Garcia Godoy 2, B. Ortiz 1, M. Pena 1, N. Perez Vivas 1, E. Ruiz Barril 1
Saves - USA - A. Johnson 11 - ESP - M. Terre 7
6x5 - USA - 5/11 - ESP - 3/13
Penalties - USA - 1/1 - ESP - 0/1
