IRVINE With an unblemished record entering Thursday night and a large collection of tournament titles, the U.S. women’s water polo team knew the talk.
“We hear a lot that we’re unbeatable and how great we are,” U.S. coach Adam Krikorian said after his squad played rival Australia at Beckman High.
If the reigning Olympic and world champions needed a challenge, the Aussie Sharks and goalie Lea Yanitsas provided some material with a 5-4 victory in a surprisingly low-scoring match.
Yanitsas made 11 saves, including a stop in the final seconds on a cross-cage lob shot by Maddie Musselman (Corona del Mar), to help Australia hand Team USA its first loss of 2016.
Yanitsas, bidding to become a first-team Olympian in her mid-20s, made several point-blank saves and helped hold Team USA to two natural goals. Australia managed only three natural goals against U.S. goalie Sami Hill (six saves).
“That is rare,” Australia coach Greg McFadden said of the score between the Rio Olympics-bound teams. “We’re both very aggressive, attacking teams. It’s a testament to the way everyone defended tonight.”
Australia took a 5-4 lead with 49 seconds left on a cross-cage perimeter strike from the short wing by Nicola Zagame. Team USA had just fought off a power-play chance by Australia.
Krikorian called timeout and the chants of “USA! USA!” sprung from the overflow crowd. But the Stars and Stripes quickly lost possession before getting the ball back with about 10 seconds for Musselman.
Team USA tied the score, 4-4, on an off-speed lob from Maggie Steffens from 7 meters with 3:46 left. Steffens released as Australia’s defense seemed to focus on Aria Fischer (Laguna Beach) at center.
But that was one of the few U.S. highlights against Yanitsas. In third, she blocked a point-blank shot from center by Kaleigh Gilchrist (Newport Harbor), an extra-man redirect by Steffens and a shot on a drive by Makenzie Fischer (Laguna Beach).
“This is a good lesson for us learn that we’re not unbeatable,” Krikorian said. “We had a ton of good looks early and even late but we were rushed in everything we were doing.”
Rachel Fattal (Los Alamitos), playing in the pool from her days with the SOCAL club, had three steals and two field blocks to help anchor the U.S. defense.
“Every loss is good in some ways,” she said. “It makes us come back and re-evaluate and see what we didn’t do well and see what we need to work on.”
Both teams are headed to the FINA World League Super Finals in China in ealy June. Team USA has added defender Alys Williams (Edison) to its roster for the tournament, which starts June 7.
