John Mann (Newport Beach, CA/California/NYAC) scored a game high five goals while Bret Bonanni (Huntington Beach, CA/Stanford/Stanford) added four goals in the win. Merrill Moses (Palos Verdes, CA/Pepperdine/NYAC) tallied eight saves in the win.
Dusan Mandic scored to stop the bleeding for Serbia but the United States answered with goals from Tony Azevedo (Long Beach, CA/Stanford/NYAC), Mann and Bonanni to take a 9-5 lead, their largest of the night. Gavril Subotic connected for a score late in the third leaving team USA ahead 9-6 going to the fourth. Bonanni hit for his fourth goal of the night with 6:03 remaining to put Team USA up 11-8 but Serbia, the number two ranked team in the world, wasn’t done yet. Slobodan Nikic scored followed by the second of the match for Subotic to make it a one goal game at 11-10 with just over three minutes to play. Team USA slammed the door shut with the fifth and final goal from Mann with 1:26 to play and the defense held the rest of the way.
Stefan Mitrovic led the Serbian attack with three goals.
Scoring
USA 12 (1, 5, 3, 3) J. Mann 5, B. Bonanni 4, T. Azevedo 2, A. Obert 1
SRB 10 (2, 2, 2, 4) S. Mitrovic 3, G. Subotic 2, S. Nikic 2, S. Rasovic 1, D. Mandic 1, Z. Gocic 1
Saves – USA – M. Moses – 8 – SRB – G. Pijetlovic 2, B. Mitrovic 3
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySH1BgkS4ws
Swimming news courtesy of USA Water Polo.