Olympic Women’s Water Polo: Australia Tops U.S. in Shootout to End Four-Peat Quest

Olympic Women’s Water Polo: Australia Tops U.S. in Shootout to End Four-Peat Quest

The American quest for four straight gold medals in women’s water polo is over.

Gabriella Palm stopped Maddie Musselman in the sixth round of the penalty shootout at the Paris La Defense Arena Thursday, sending Australia to a 14-13 win in the semifinals.

The Aussies will face Spain, which survived a 19-18 decision with the Netherlands in penalties in the earlier semifinal, for gold. The Dutch and Americans will faceoff for bronze.

The first 11 shooters converted in penalties, with Zoe Arancini beating Ashleigh Johnson for a second time in the sixth round. Palm, who had been subbed out after the first three penalties, came back in and denied Musselman’s attempt to her right to set off the green-and-gold celebrations.

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Arancini and Bronte Halligan scored three times each for Australia. Abby Andrews led the way with five goals on a day where Alice Williams, the tournament’s leading scorer, was held scoreless after picking up three exclusion fouls. Palm was one better than Johnson on the day, with 13 saves. Johnson had 12.

It was a dour ending for Musselman, who was excellent with three goals and two assists. Jenna Flynn scored three times for the U.S.

The Americans, coming off a 5-4 win over Hungary in the quarterfinals, tried to keep it low-scoring again. They led 5-2 at the half, thanks in large part to six saves from Johnson.

Musselman scored two of the game’s first four goals, one on a five-meter penalty.

The Aussies were playing most of the way without Williams, who picked up two exclusion fouls on the same possession in the first quarter. She committed her third just 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, drawn by a dogged Musselman.

The American youth gave it some breathing room late in the second quarter. After Palm turned aside Ryann Neushul, Jovana Sekulic was first to the ball at two meters and deposited the rebound. A block of an Arancini shot with 25 seconds left led to a Jewel Roemer outlet that found Emily Ausmus, who took her space and beat Palm in close to set the halftime edge.

Australia respond out of the break, Andrews taking the lead. She scored four times in the third quarter, ripping home a pair of goals in the first two minutes to get Australia within one. Johnson got her hand to the last one and briefly stemmed the tide with a save on Halligan on the next possession. But Andrews tied the game at 5 with a rip from distance, then when Flynn scored off a Jordan Raney dish, Andrews took a Sienna Hearn feed and picked out a corner on the power play to knot it at 6.

Maggie Steffens, vying to become the first individual to win four straight gold medals, scored her first goal of the game off a Musselman feed to make it 7-6 at the end of the third, but the Americans’ offensive execution abandoned them in the fourth, with five turnovers.

Musselman set up Fattal to make it 8-6 early in the fourth, but Halligan got it right back. Halligan tied the game at 2:54, and two saves by Johnson got the game to the shootout, with Palm denying Musselman with 2:30 to play and Raney hitting the crossbar late on.