Women’s Water Polo: Team USA, featuring Musselman, Gilchrist, routs China

IRVINE — Some of Maddie Musselman’s closest friends sat on the grass at Woollett Aquatics Center on Saturday night.

With about 20 Corona del Mar High students watching there, Musselman had perhaps the largest cheering section of any player in the U.S. senior national women’s water polo team exhibition against China. CdM seniors like Caroline Bethel, Courtney Johnston, Erin Hatch and Lauren Grable may not be well-versed in water polo, but they made sure that their voices were heard, yelling out “Maddie!” at any opportunity.

“I told them all about it, because there’s few opportunities that you get to have a home game,” Musselman said after the game. “None of my friends have really seen a water polo game very much, so I was like, ‘Come on down’ … they can watch the highest level of the sport.”

Musselman stayed focused on the game, but her friends did pick a good one to attend. Team USA, featuring the former CdM star Musselman and former Newport Harbor and USC standout Kaleigh Gilchrist, certainly appeared to be playing at a high level in the final three quarters. The American side beat China, 14-3, before a near-capacity crowd in its first game since winning the FINA World Championships in August.

Exactly three months after winning gold in Russia on Aug. 7, Team USA was on top of its game. Kiley Neushul led the way with four goals, and former Laguna Beach High standout Makenzie Fischer scored twice along with Monica Vavic and KK Clark. Maggie Steffens, Rachel Fattal, Alys Williams and Kodi Hill each scored once.

Musselman, who was in the starting lineup, had an assist, a steal and a field block for Team USA. Gilchrist had a steal and an assist and also drew an exclusion in the game that was played as part of the two-day Collegiate Cup, a preseason tournament for college women’s water polo.

The United States, the top-ranked team in the world, pulled away to take a 5-2 halftime lead after the score was tied, 1-1, after the first quarter. Gilchrist said it was nice to give the home fans a good game. For Gilchrist and Musselman, it was the first time playing on American soil since the FINA Intercontinental Tournament in Riverside in May, 2014.

“Every opportunity we get to play at home is a great one,” Gilchrist said. “To be able to play in front of our crowd is awesome. We’ve been training against China the past week [at the USA Water Polo National Training Center in Los Alamitos], so we started catching on, knowing their tendencies and whatnot. It was good to finally play them in a game atmosphere.”

Sami Hill made six saves and Gabby Stone five for the U.S., which had impressive power-play numbers. The Americans converted six of their nine opportunities and also scored a penalty shot.

China, meanwhile, was one for 11 with the extra player and also missed a penalty shot off the post. Niu Guannan, Sun Yating and Zhao Zihan all scored goals for China.

Team USA Coach Adam Krikorian was overall pleased with the game. He said it was the first time since December of 2013 that he had his full team together.

“China’s a great team, so we weren’t expecting to come in and blow them out in the first quarter,” Krikorian said. “It takes four quarters to beat a great team like that. Although it might not have seemed like that today, I know that Chinese team is going to be much stronger in the coming months … [the power-play stats] are great. For us to be able to execute in a live game setting that efficiently on our six-on-five, it’s a good sign for us.

“Our five-on-six defense was really spectacular tonight. I think any time you play a good five-on-six, it gives your team positive energy and it translates into good offense actually.”

Team USA will be busy over the next couple of months, with a three-game series against Australia scheduled for Nov. 23 in La Jolla, Nov. 24 at the training center in Los Alamitos and Nov. 27 at Dos Pueblos High.

The Americans will then play the Netherlands at Mira Costa High on Dec. 13, before playing in the Holiday Cup tournament at Corona del Mar High on Dec. 15-20. Krikorian said top European teams like Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will be attending. Italy is the one team that the U.S. lost to last summer, the Netherlands is the No. 2-ranked team in the world and Spain is the European champion.

“It couldn’t be a better group of teams,” Krikorian said.

Musselman, who is the second-youngest player on Team USA, is still attending online school after enrolling in March. The UCLA commit said she will likely try to graduate early in 2016, so she can turn her attention to the Olympic qualifying tournament in the Netherlands in March.

“I want to try to finish so I can just totally focus,” said Musselman, who did so Saturday night even with some of her best friends calling out her name.

The Collegiate Cup tournament wraps up on Sunday at Woollett. Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar graduates participating for collegiate programs include Alex Musselman, Carlee Kapana, Elissia Schilling and Rachel Whitelegge (UCLA); Kate Yasko (Long Beach State); Genevieve Weed, Pippa Saunders and Grace Morgan (Cal); Ioanna Haralabidis and Avery Peterson (USC); and Christina O’Beck and Sami Pratt (Michigan).