LOS ANGELES — The trifecta is complete for the Neushul family.
Ryann, the youngest daughter of Peter and Cathy Neushul of Isla Vista, was selected as one of the 13 members of the three-time defending Olympic champion USA Water Polo Women’s Team that will compete at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, which run from July 26 to Aug. 11.
The team was introduced Thursday at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Ryann’s selection made it a three-for-three streak of Neushul siblings to play for the U.S. Water Polo team at the Olympic Games.
Eldest sister Kiley won a gold medal as a member of the 2016 team in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and middle sister Jamie brought home gold from the 2020 Tokyo Games that were staged in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
All three sisters attended Dos Pueblos High and Stanford.
“Obviously, they come from an amazing, wonderful family,” Team USA coach Adam Krikorian, who has been at the helm of the team since 2009, said. “Talk about not just the success that the three women have had, but, obviously, the parents.
“What they’ve done for the sport of water polo, just with regard to creating more than just the Neushuls, but there’s been so much talent that has come through Santa Barbara over the years. It starts at the top, it starts with them and the values they’ve instilled in their children and their kids.”
Peter and Cathy Neushul run the Santa Barbara 805 Water Polo Club, which for several years has developed standout youth players who have gone on to play in college and in USA Water Polo national programs.
Ryann’s roster spot extends a streak of local water polo women competing for Team USA at the Olympics to five Olympiads.
Thalia Munro (Santa Barbara High) earned a bronze medal in 2004, Kami Craig (Santa Barbara) claimed a silver in 2008 and won gold in 2012 and 2016, Kiley Neushul (Dos Pueblos) and Sami Hill (Dos Pueblos) joined Craig on the 2016 championship team, and Paige Hauschild (San Marcos) and Jamie Neushul were the golden girls from 2020.
Ryann, 24, has been in the senior national team pipeline since her senior year at Dos Pueblos in 2018. She trained with the team that won in Tokyo but knew it wasn’t her time.
“I knew my position was very much more to learn and observe,” Ryann said. “I’m still obviously a competitor, so I brought my best self every day and tried to learn. What that quad (the four-year cycle between Olympics) gave me was a lot of knowledge of how I can go through this quad — ‘Maybe this isn’t my time to make the team, but there will come a day where I can.’
“So, I said, ‘OK, my eyes are set on Paris.’”
In that time after the Tokyo Olympics, an improved and inspired Ryann played on two NCAA National Championship teams at Stanford and two World Championship teams with the U.S. Senior National Team.
“Ever since then I’ve just known this is what I want,” Ryann said of making an Olympic team. “I know I can do it. I know how to get it and I’m just gonna keep waking up every day with that purpose and that intention.
“And it’s led to here. I’m so excited and grateful.”
Connor Levoff, who coached Ryann with the Santa Barbara 805 Water Polo Club and at Dos Pueblos, said he’s going to Paris to watch her play.
“I’m so proud of Ryann for achieving another goal in her impressive career,” Levoff said. “All of the women sacrifice so much to work towards realizing their Olympic dreams. But I’m sure if you ask Ryann, making the team is just another step forward and her focus has already moved on to Paris.
“I can’t wait to watch her represent Santa Barbara and Isla Vista on the world stage.”
Ryann is one of seven players on the squad who will be making their Olympics debut.
The others are former UC Irvine standout Tara Prentice, Princeton’s Jovana Sekulic, former Stanford star Jordan Raney, 18-year-old Emily Ausmus of Riverside and Stanford’s Jewel Roemer and Jenna Flynn.
The veterans are three-time Olympic champion and captain Maggie Steffens, goalkeepers Ashleigh Johnson (two golds) and Amanda Longan (one gold) and two-time goal medalists Rachel Fatal, Kaleigh Gilchrist and Maddie Musselman.
Roemer played her freshman season at Dos Pueblos before returning to the Bay Area. She and Ryann won national titles together at Stanford.
“I love playing with Ryann, I feel like we have a really great connection,” Roemer said.
Krikorian is impressed by how Ryann has raised the level of her game and how valuable her family has been to USA Water Polo.
“We’ve seen here that her role on this team has been extremely, extremely important, and we can’t thank Cathy and Peter enough for everything they’ve done to help this sport and, obviously, to help our program specifically,” Kirkorian said.
Ryann credits the experiences her sisters went through to make the Olympic team in helping navigate her journey.
“I think watching Kiley pave the way first in Rio and seeing that she could do that (inspired me),” Ryann said. “I had big dreams of my own to follow in the footsteps and go to Stanford and hopefully have a chance to make at an Olympics on the national team. But it’s very team-to-team, moment-to-moment. You can have that dream but you have to make the next roster or the next team.
“Especially at the beginning (of the process), it’s very turbulent, you don’t know exactly if you’re going to make this roster. You have to put that work in that time. So watching my sister Kiley conquer those roadblocks and get through that first, it definitely gave me the confidence and the wherewithal to know, ‘OK, maybe I can do this too.’”
From Jamie’s journey, Ryann learned about perseverance.
“It all looks the same on paper, but each (journey) is so different,” Ryann said. “She had to fight very, very hard to get a spot for that Tokyo team. She was cut in 2019 for the World Championships and had to come back from that. So, watching her deal with those failures and successes along the way, really showed me how I can do that as well.
“Going into this, I for sure have used (my sisters) as examples for everything that I do, but I also do my best to be my own person and pave my own path because it’s super important to do that.
“But, I would not be standing here without them or without my mother and father, who, as Adam said, are big pillars in the Santa Barbara water polo community and have taught me everything I know about water polo, especially from a young age, the fundamentals that are so important to guide you through the sport.”
Those fundamentals have made Ryann a versatile player. For the Olympic team, she’ll be playing center defender, which is one of the most grueling positions in all of sports — it’s a full-on freestyle wrestling match in deep water in front of the goal.
“I’ve transitioned to defender because it’s what this team needed and, obviously, it’s what would give me purpose and a spot on this team for sure,” Ryann said. “I’m more than willing to do that.
“I just want to help this team win in Paris, so I’m there in the middle, I’m in the thick of it all and that’s great. It’s all that matters.”
Ryann will be playing in front of two-time gold medal-winning goalie Ashleigh Johnson, who is a close friend of the Neushul family.
“I was really excited when Ryann got selected for this team because I love defenders and I love Neushuls more,” Johnson said. “I’ve been working very closely with Ryann and Ryann is a big inspiration to me just because of how she works and how she engages with the game. She’s so intelligent, she’s so driven and you can see it in the water.”
The odds of having all three of your children make an Olympic team “are incalculable,” said Peter Neushul. “It is mind-blowing to see three young women with different personalities, skills and physical attributes reach this level of play.”
“I think Ryann’s friendship with her sisters and the example they set has a lot to do with her achievement. It is wonderful and amazing to see Ryann achieve her goal and become an Olympian. I’m as happy to see three sisters support and appreciate each other. The bond carries beyond sport and matters most in the game of life.”
