Jr. women win third straight

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia - The USA Women's Junior National Team continues to roll along at the FINA Junior World Championships with their third straight win, this time against South Africa 16-4. Ashley Grossman (Santa Monica, CA/LA Water Polo), Annika Dries (Laguna Beach, CA/SET), and Maggie Steffens (Danville, CA/Diablo) each scored three goals in the victory while Kate Baldoni (Newport Beach, CA/SET) did the job in net for four quarters. With the win the USA advances to take on Australia on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

As for this match it was another dominating effort by the red, white, and blue. Team USA blitzed the South Africans with a 3-0 first quarter that saw goals from Domenique Sardo (Rancho San Diego, CA/SD Shores), Grossman, and Dries. In the second it was more of the same as Dries added on another along with Brooke Martin (Temecula, CA/SET) for a 5-0 lead at halftime.

In the second half the United States kept it moving running off another three goals to go up 8-0 before South African got on the board. Steffens, Grossman, and Kiley Neushul (Goleta, CA/Santa Barbara) provided the early offense while it was Kelly Mendoza (Danville, CA/Diablo) and another late goal from Grossman that closed out the period for a 10-2 lead headed to the fourth.

The match was in hand at this point and the United States squashed any potential rally with six more goals two coming from Steffens, and the rest from Dries, Neushul, Madeline Rosenthal (Miami, FL/Raider WP) and Colleen O'Donnell (Palos Verdes, CA/LA Water Polo). It all added up to a 16-4 victory and a 3-1 record thus far in tournament play.

Scoring:
USA 16 (3, 2, 5, 6) A. Dries 3, A. Grossman 3, M. Steffens 3, K. Neushul 2, B. Martin 1, K. Mendoza 1, C. O'Donnell 1, M. Rosenthal 1, D. Sardo 1
RSA 4 (0, 0, 2, 2) K. Traube 1, N. Barrett 1, C. Tonkin 1, T. Schooling 1