Local water polo players Paige Hauschild, Ryann Neushul and Jewel Roemer each scored goals to help rally Team USA to a 6-5 victory over Canada in a hard-fought match Friday night at the FINA Intercontinental Tournament in Davis.
The win gives the U.S. a 4-0 record in the tournament and sets up a showdown against unbeaten Australia on Saturday night.
Aria Fischer led all scorers with two goals.
Down 3-1 at half, Team USA began its comeback when Neushul assisted Fischer to draw within a goal. Hauschild then buried a shot from the right-hand side to tie the score at 3-3. Canada went ahead 4-3 in the fourth quarter until Neushul tied the score with a close range cross-cage blast from the near post. Roemer then scored a near side bar down skip shot to put Team USA up 5-4 with 53 seconds left in the quarter.
A Team USA ejection gave Canada a chance to tie and it did just that when Stanford alum Guphreet Sohi skipped a shot in from the right side. With 11 seconds left in the game coach Adam Krikorian called a time out and Team USA advanced the ball into the front-court and found two time Olympic Gold Medalist Melissa Seidemann. She nailed a perfect upper-left-corner shot to ice the game with one second left on the clock.
The club 805 Santa Barbara girls played key minutes in the match. Neushul drew three ejections in transition while Hauschild stole the ball twice in her second consecutive four-quarter defensive stand.
Team USA will meet an Australia team led by a mixture of Olympic veterans and junior players. Australia will rely on size and physicality to try and dominate the younger U.S. squad.
USA vs. Australia will be streamed live at https://www.facebook.com/USAWP/