BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Princeton University alumna/goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson stopped 17-of-21 shots she faced to keep the United States in the game as the Americans survived and advanced in the 2024 Olympics quarterfinals with a nail-biting 5-4 defeat of Hungary at the Paris La Defense Arena.
Courtesy the victory, Team USA advances to face former University of Michigan standout Abby Andrews and Australia – which topped Greece by a 9-6 count earlier in the day – on Thursday, August 8, at 1:35 p.m. Eastern/10:35 a.m Pacific with a berth in the Gold Medal game on the line.
The United States – which downed Greece by a 15-6 score (July 27), suffered a 13-11 setback against Spain (July 29), came off the canvas to upend Italy by a 10-3 count (July 31) and finished off Group B action with a 17-5 revolution versus France (August 2) – went back-and-forth with Hungary as neither team was able to build a lead larger than a single goal from the opening sprint in the first quarter until the final horn in the fourth quarter.
Hungary gained the early scoreboard advantage as Krisztina Garda beat Johnson with an action shot at the 3:16 mark of the first quarter. Maggie Steffens responded for the Red, White & Blue with an action shot at 2:08 prior to Dora Leimeter slipping in a center shot with 1:22 on the clock to return the lead to Hungary at 2-1.
Neither team dented the twine again until the 3:42 mark of the second quarter when Tara Prentice converted a man-up opportunity to knot the score at two-all. The deadlock lasted until there was 32 seconds left in the first half as Jewel Roemer flushed an action shot to stake the Americans to their first lead at 3-2.
Exiting halftime, the Hungarians broke their scoring fast as Rita Keszthelyi netted a counter-attack equalizer with 6:25 on the clock to even the damage at three-all. Steffens buried a man-up chance (4:53) to return her squad to the lead at 4-3, but Kamilla Farago responded by cashing in on a power-play bid (3:34) to make it a four-all game heading into the decisive fourth quarter.
The play of Johnson and the American defense was critical down the stretch as the Miami native nixed Hungary’s offense in the final eight minutes, while Rachel Fattal swished the deciding factor with a man-up tally at the 3:02 mark for the 5-4 win.
Johnson stonewalled Hungary throughout the majority of the game by turning aside 11-of-12 action shots, one-of-two center shots, four-of-five man-up chances, zero-of-one counter attack opportunities and one-for-one six-meter shots to go along with a steal and a rebound in 32 minutes of action.
Through five games, Johnson has made 58 saves with 29 goals allowed on 87 shots with four steals, a rebound and a goal in 148:17 of time guarding the cage.
Current Princeton student-athlete Jovana Sekulic shot zero-for-two (zero-for-one center shots/zero-for-one man-up shots) in 11:56 of playing time during the game for the United States. She increased her inaugural Olympic statistics to four goals on nine shots with a pair of steals in the Americans’ five games.
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