U.S. women's water polo grinds out win for a spot in semifinals vs. Australia

NANTERRE, France — Team USA women’s water polo’s quest for a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal remains alive after the Americans knocked off Hungary, 5-4, in the quarterfinals Tuesday. Advancing to Thursday’s semifinals, they’ll take on Australia, which topped Greece, 9-6, earlier in the day.

“Me and Maggie [Steffens] hugged each other and just screamed in each other's faces, just acknowledging that we both put our whole selves into that game,” USA goalkeeper and three-time Olympian Ashleigh Johnson said. 

“We both could see that effort and appreciate that effort, and it's on to the next one. We're like, ‘We got this.’”

In a hard-fought contest, the teams were fairly even throughout the match, and Team USA had a 3-2 lead after two quarters. Tied at 4-4 midway through the fourth quarter, three-time Olympian Rachel Fattal delivered the go-ahead goal with 3:02 left and ultimately sealed the victory for the Americans.

All about defense, it was the lowest combined women’s water polo score of the Olympics so far.

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“We knew it was gonna be a grind,” Fattal said of Hungary. “We knew it was gonna be a tough game no matter what, whether it was high-scoring or low-scoring. And we knew we were gonna have to fight the whole time. So, no, it doesn't surprise me that it was low-scoring at all.”

Team USA’s captain, Steffens, a four-time Olympian, led the team with two goals off three shots, and Johnson made 17 saves on 21 shots on the day at Paris La Défense Arena.

“[Johnson] continues to set the bar extremely high,” Steffens said. “I think it's kind of funny how when she doesn't have over 15 saves — which is absurd — people are like, ‘Oh, tough game.' It's like, what?" … 

“Something that's great about Ashleigh is it's just, it's not just her ability to block balls and be our wall back there, but she's a huge leader for us.”

The other semifinal match will feature Spain, which topped Canada, against Netherlands, which beat Italy in the quarterfinals Tuesday. 

Spain and Netherlands are set to face off at 8:35 a.m. ET Thursday, while Team USA and Australia will play the second semifinal at 1:35 p.m. ET.