Athens, Greece - April 21 - The Team USA Women wrapped up play at the 2023 World Aquatics World Cup qualifier with a narrow 8-9 loss to the Netherlands. Maddie Musselman and Julia Bonaguidi each notched hat tricks while Ashleigh Johnson recorded eight saves in net. A replay of the game can be found here.
Midway through the opening quarter, Bonaguidi got Team USA on the board first from a power play goal before Brigitte Sleeking answered on the other end for the Netherlands. With the score level, Allison Cohen found Musselman on another player advantage. Bente Rogge finished the quarter with a pair of extra player goals to give the Dutch a 3-2 lead after one.
The two sides traded power play goals to begin the second period, first from Sabrina van der Sloot one minute in and followed by Bonaguidi and Sleeking each converting their second score. From there, Lieke Rogge and Marit van der Weijden extended the Netherlands' lead before Bonaguidi submitted her third of the contest to make the score 7-4 for the Dutch at halftime.
Bente Rogge sank an action shot goal early in the third quarter that pushed the Netherlands up four. Minutes later, Musselman drilled a penalty shot and Emily Ausmus got one to go on a player advantage to cut the Americans' deficit in half. With under two minutes in the period, Lieke Rogge put home a penalty shot for the Dutch and then Musselman scored on the other end to bring the United States within two, 9-7.
With a close game to start the final frame, both teams' defenses came to play. After a number of steals, turnovers, and blocked shots either way, Ausmus deposited her second goal of the game with 2:51 remaining to cut the lead in half. At 0:26 on the clock, Tara Prentice came up with a steal to give Team USA a chance to tie but three different shots on goal in the final ten seconds were saved by Laura Aarts to preserve the Netherlands' victory, 9-8.
Scoring - Stats via World Aquatics
USA 8 (2, 2, 3, 1) M. Musselman 3, J. Bonaguidi 3, E. Ausmus 2
NED 9 (3, 4, 2, 0) B. Rogge 3, L. Rogge 2, B. Sleeking 2, S. van der Sloot 1, M. van der Weijden 1
6-on-5: USA 5/11, NED 5/7
Penalties: USA 1/1, NED 1/1
Saves: USA 8 (A. Johnson), NED 10 (L. Aarts)
