Tokyo, Japan - The U.S. Olympic Women's Water Polo Team snapped an early 3-3 tie against Japan with a 22-1 run for a record-breaking win to start play at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The 25-4 final featured the Olympic record for the total number of goals in a match at 25, total number of goals in a half (14, first half) and largest margin of victory at 21. Team captain and two-
time Olympic Games MVP Maggie Steffens did what she does best in the Olympics, score goals. The two-time gold medalist joined forces with Olympic newcomer Stephania Haralabidis to score five goals each in pacing the offense. Steffens' five goals puts her just five away from the all-time Olympic scoring record in women's water polo. Rio gold medalist Ashleigh Johnson was strong in net, turning away 15 shots. The USA-Japan match will re-air on NBC Sports Network at 10:45am et/7:45am pt, a replay is available to stream by clicking here. Team USA returns to action in Group B play on July 26 when they meet China at 2pm local time/1am eastern/10pm pacific (July 25). Live streaming for the match can be accessed by clicking here.
The top-ranked team in the world, Team USA, went up early with Steffens connecting on the first two goals. After Japan scored, Olympic rookie Paige Hauschild hit for her first goal and a 3-1 lead. Moments later Japan scored consecutive goals to even the match at 3-3 with 3:39 to play in the first. From there, the United States took complete control. They ran up five more goals in the quarter including two from Maddie Musselman and one tally each from Steffens and Haralabidis. They kept the pressure on in the second quarter, outscoring Japan 6-0 to take a 14-3 lead at intermission. Musselman and Steffens scored early, Haralabidis added two later and Aria Fischer finished off the half with a goal to take the hefty margin into the break.
In the third quarter Japan got back on the scoring column but that was silenced by seven more goals from Team USA. Aria Fischer opened the quarter with two straight followed by the first of the tourney from Rachel Fattal. Gilchrist, Haralabidis, Melissa Seidemann and Hauschild add goals to close out the frenzy in the third, leaving Team USA ahead 21-4 going to the fourth. Things slowed a bit over the final eight minutes as the United States added four more goals. Another from Steffens cemented the result as Team USA confirmed the 25-4 win.
The United States went 6/9 on power plays and 2/3 on penalty shots while Japan went 2/7 on power plays with no penalty shots attempted.
Scoring - Stats
USA 25 (8, 6, 7, 4) M. Steffens 5, S. Haralabidis 5, M. Musselman 4, A. Fischer 4, P. Hauschild 2, K. Gilchrist 2, M. Seidemann 1, M. Fischer 1, R. Fattal 1
JPN 4 (3, 0, 1, 0) M. Koide 2, Y. Arima 1, E. Ura 1
Saves - USA - A. Johnson 15 - JPN - R. Miura 12
6x5 - USA - 6/9 JPN - 2/7
Penalties - USA 2/3 - JPN - 0/0
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