Paris, France - July 31 - The U.S. Olympic Women's Water Polo Team bounced back from a loss on Monday with a dominant showing earlier today in Paris. Team USA defeated Italy 10-3 to move to 2-1 in group play with one match remaining.
Maddie Musselman led the charge on offense with three goals while
Ashleigh Johnson made nine big saves in cage. The USA Women return to the pool on Friday when they take on France to close out group play at 6:30pm local time/12:30pm et/9:30am pt. The match will air LIVE on USA Network and stream on Peacock.
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Team USA struck first in the opening two minutes with a goal from
Rachel Fattal for a 1-0 lead. They added a few minutes later on a
Jordan Raney connect. The hot start continued as
Ryann Neushul delivered her first goal at the Olympics on a power play connect for a 3-0 lead with 2:19 to play in the period. Italy got one back late in the period but Team USA held the two goal edge going to the second. Musselman had the first word in the second period on a power play strike, but Italy responded less than a minute later to make it a 4-2 match wth 4:50 left in the first half. That's as close as Italy would get the rest of the way.
Jewel Roemer and
Kaleigh Gilchrist closed out the scoring in the first half, both drilling power play strikes, to build a 6-2 edge at halftime.
In the third quarter it was more of the same as the United States blanked Italy 2-0 to go in front 8-2. Musselman and
Maggie Steffens both delivered power play goals to help add to the cushion.
Jenna Flynn opened the fourth quarter with a power play goal in the opening minute, Musselman added another a few minutes later and Team USA was off to victory up 10-2. Italy had one final goal in the waning seconds but the United States came away victorious.
Team USA went 7/14 on power plays while Italy went 1/8 with neither team attempting a penalty shot.
Scoring -
Stats
USA 10 (3, 3, 2, 2) M. Musselman 3, R. Fattal 1, J. Flynn 1, M. Steffens 1, J. Raney 1, R. Neushul 1, J. Roemer 1, K. Gilchrist 1
ITA 3 (1, 1, 0, 1) C. Marletta 2, S. Giustini 1
Saves - USA - A. Johnson 9 - ITA - C. Banchelli 9
6x5 - USA - 7/14 - ITA - 1/8
Penalties - USA - 0/0 - ITA - 0/0
