Courtesy: USA Water Polo
TUSTIN, Calif. – The USA Men’s National Team returned to action in front of a packed pool deck at Foothill High School, falling short to Italy 13-11. The match kicked off a three-game series with Italy in Southern California.
Hannes Daube (Long Beach, CA/USC/North Irvine WPC) led the USA attack with four goals. Alex Wolf (Huntington Beach, CA/UCLA/Bruin) went the distance in net recording nine saves. Team USA and Italy return to action tomorrow at Chapman University at 4pm pt. The match will air live on Eleven Sports and at YouTube.com/USAWP. Live stats will be provided at TheFOSH.net. To purchase tickets click here. To watch a replay of tonight’s USA-Italy match, click here.
Italy jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Team USA battled back to the tie the match at 2-2 on a goal from Alex Bowen (Santee, CA/Stanford/NYAC). Italy rebuilt their lead going up 5-2 towards the end of the first quarter before Daube cashed in a penalty shot to make it 5-3 after the first. Team USA would chase the game the rest of the way falling behind 8-4 by halftime. Bowen made it 9-6 with a tally midway through the third period but again Italy pushed it to a four goal advantage. Dylan Woodhead (San Anselmo, CA/Stanford/Stanford WPF) delivered a highlight with a lob shot from distance to close out the third quarter, leaving Team USA trailing Italy 10-7.
Team USA kept battling in the fourth quarter, outscoring Italy 4-3 as they tried to work their way back to even. Daube hit on a penalty shot with 4:36 to play to draw within three at 11-8. They’d get no closer until a late goal from Alex Obert (Loomis, CA/Pacific/NYAC) that made it 13-11 with just seconds to play.
Team USA went 5/17 on power plays and 3/4 on penalties while Italy was 3/8 on power plays and 3/3 on penalties.
Scoring
USA 11 (3, 1, 3, 4) H. Daube 4, A. Bowen 3, A. Obert 1, M. Vavic 1, J. Ehrhardt 1, D. Woodhead 1,
ITA 13 (5, 3, 2, 3) F. Di Fulvio 4, O. Echenique 3, N. Presciutti 2, V. Dolce 1, J. Alesiano 1, A. Fondelli 1, L. Bruni 1
Saves – USA – A. Wolf 9 – ITA – F. De Michelis 7, G. Nicosia 3
6×5 – USA – 5/17 – ITA 3-8
Penalties – USA – 3/4 – ITA – 3-3
Officials – Levon Dermendjian – Scott Voltz