WATER POLO: USA Men Close Out Group Play With 14-5 Loss To Greece; Quarterfinals Up Next In Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan – August 2 – The U.S. Olympic Men's Water Polo Team dropped their third straight match at the Tokyo Olympic Games, falling to Greece 14-5 as they closed out group play with a 2-3 record. Alex Obert scored two goals and Drew Holland added 7 saves in net. Team USA now moves on to the quarterfinal round on Wednesday where they'll meet the winner of Croatia and Spain. A replay of the USA-Greece match will air as part of Olympic coverage on NBC today at 12pm eastern/9am pacific and on NBCSN at 8pm eastern/5pm pacific. To stream a replay of the match, click here. Schedule and broadcast information on the quarterfinal round will be shared as soon it is available.

Greece was the aggressor early in this one as

they opened up a 2-0 lead before Alex Bowen found the back of the net to cut the deficit down to one. Greece answered with two more goals to close out the first quarter in front 4-1. Greece took a 5-1 lead early in the second quarter but Team USA returned fire with two of the next three goals. Ben Stevenson hit first, followed by Obert and it was a 6-3 game going into halftime.

Team USA looked to keep the momentum going as the second half started with a goal from Max Irving for a 6-4 game with 5:55 to play in the third. That would be as close as things would get as Greece scored five of the next six goals in the period. Kostas Genidounias delivered two of his five goals on the day over the next few minutes for an 8-4 lead. After Obert scored to make it 9-5, Genidounias added one more in the period for a 10-5 lead. Greece tacked on another goal not long after to build an 11-6 advantage going to the fourth.


Greece put the match away in the final period holding Team USA scoreless while adding three more goals. The last came from Ioannis Fountoulis, his fourth of the day, to put Greece up 14-5 with 3:45 to play on the way to the win. Team USA continues to excel at drawing power plays, but struggled to convert going 2/14 while Greece was 4/7. Greece went 2/2 on penalties while Team USA did not attempt any penalty shots.

Scoring – Stats
USA 5 (1, 2, 2, 0) A. Obert 2, A. Bowen 1, B. Stevenson 1, M. Irving 1
GRE 14 (4, 2, 5, 3) K. Genidounias 5, I. Fountoulis 4, S. Argyropoulos 2, C. Kolomvos 1, A. Vlachopoulos 1, D. Skoumpakis 1
Saves – USA – D. Holland 7 – GRE – E. Zerdevas 10
6x5 – USA – 2/14 – GRE 4/7
Penalties – USA – 0/0 – GRE 2/2