Santa Barbara’s Paige Hauschild scored two goals and Ryann Neushul tallied one to help the USA Women’s Water Polo Senior National Team to a 10-6 victory over Australia on Friday at the World Aquatics World Cup semifinals in Sydney, Australia.
Team USA will play Spain for the gold medal on Saturday at 11:15 p.m. PT. Spain beat Russia 15-13 in a penalty shootout, in the other semifinal.
Neushul (Dos Pueblos, Stanford alum) converted a penalty shot in the second period to give Team USA a 3-1 advantage against host nation.
Australia cut the deficit to 5-4 late in the second quarter before Jordan Raney and Hauschild (San Marcos, USC alum) scored back to back for a 7-4 lead.
The U.S. led 9-6 lead after three periods and held the Aussies scoreless in the final seven minutes. Hauschild put away the 10th goal to seal the victory. Jewell Roemer also scored twice for the Americans.
Four local players are on the Team USA squad: Neushul, Hauschild, Ava Stryker (San Marcos, USC) and Lucy Haaland-Ford (San Marcos, Stanford). Neushul and Hauschild are Olympics veterans; Neushul played in the 2024 Games in Paris, while Hauschild was on the team for the 2020 Games (delayed to 2021 due to COVID) in Tokyo, where the U.S. won the gold medal.
