BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — On the one year anniversary of the United States women’s water polo team’s 12-5 Gold Medal earning defeat of Italy at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Team USA posted a highlight video of the contest.
Princeton University goalie Ashleigh Johnson (Miami, Fla./Ransom Everglades) made nine saves, including a five-meter penalty shot, grabbed a game-high four steals and dished out an assist to factor on both ends of the tank for Team USA in the game.
The victory was historical on a number of levels as the United States reached the Gold Medal game for the third consecutive Olympics and the fourth time in the history of the sport dating back to 2000 in Sydney, Australia. The 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist (8-5 W vs. Spain in London, England), the United States became the first nation in the history of women’s Olympic water polo competition to capture two gold medals as the Americans previously finished as the Silver Medalist in both 2008 (9-8 L vs. the Netherlands in Beijing, China) and 2000 (4-3 L vs. Australia, Sydney) with a Bronze Medal performance in 2004 (6-5 W vs. Australia, Athens, Greece). Australia (2000), Italy (2004) and the Netherlands (2008) are the only teams to capture the sport’s ultimate prize on the biggest stage.
Historically, Team USA exacted a measure of revenge upon Italy. In 2004 at the Athens Games, Italy was the team that defeated the United States by a 6-5 count in the semifinals to prevent the Americans from being the only team in the history of the sport to appear in all five Women’s Olympic Gold Medal games.
The United States, which outscored its foes by a 85-32 count over the duration of the games with victories over 2012 Silver Medalist Spain (11-4 W on Tuesday, August 9), China (12-4 W on Thursday, August 11), Hungary (11-6 on Saturday, August 13), Brazil (13-3 W on Monday, August 15) and Hungary (14-10 W on Wednesday, August 17) prior to the Gold Medal rout of Italy for a 8.84 margin of victory (14.17 goals for/5.33 goals against), leaned on their All-America and 2015 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Player of the Year goalie to lead the way.
Playing in 29:28 and holding a 11-4 lead before exiting to the bench in order for back-up Sami Hill to get time in cage during the Gold Medal game, Johnson dominated the contest from the opening sprint to the final horn in stopping nine-of-13 shots-on-goal (.692 percentage) with a three-for-three performance on action shots, a five-for-eight rate on shots from outside five-meters, a one-for-one job on penalty shots and zero-for-one clip on counter-attack chances.
Johnson wrapped up the Olympic tournament with a 6-0 mark in six starts as she becomes the second CWPA goalie to lead the United States to a medal as former University of Michigan netminder/CWPA Hall of Fame inductee Betsey Armstrong guided her nation to Silver (2008) and Gold (2012) medals.
Overall, she finished the six-game run against the remainder of the world’s best teams with 51 saves off 77 shots-on-goal (.662 save percentage) with 17 steals and three assists as she turned aside eight-of-12 shots with two steals in 27:10 of playing time against China after stopping 11-of-15 shots-on-goal, including a five-meter penalty shot, with a game-high four steals versus Spain in a complete game win. She turned away nine-of-15 shots faced (.600 save percentage) with a game-high two steals in the first meeting against Hungary and stopped all six shots-on-goal Brazil fired against her, dished out a game-high two assists and collected a team best two steals in three quarters in a quarterfinal rout of Brazil. In the semifinals versus Hungary, she turned away eight-of-18 shots (.444 save percentage) on goal and collected three steals to set-up the Gold Medal clash versus Italy.
Arguably the most dominating goalie in the history of Olympic water polo regardless of gender and era, Johnson set the tone for the United States championship campaign by decimating offenses as she held Spain to a four-for-21 mark from the field (.190 shooting percentage); permitted four-for-26 shots (.154 shooting percentage) from China to slip past her; allowed six-of-29 attempts (.207 shooting percentage) to meet the twine against Hungary and held Brazil scoreless with a zero-for-20 line prior to being beat on 10-of-25 attempts in the Hungary rematch. Following a Gold Medal game in which Italy was capable of putting away only four-of-25 shots (.160 shooting percentage) against Johnson, she concludes her time in Rio by limiting her foes to a .192 shooting percentage (28-for-146). It is believed to be the lowest shooting percentage allowed by a goalie regardless of gender in the history of Olympic water polo.
The United States, which never trailed in the game, jumped in front at the 6:49 mark of the first quarter as Courtney Mathewson fired a long-distance shot into the upper-left 90 of the cage. Italy answered at 5:35 as Federica Radicchi slipped a blast past Johnson from outside five-meters, but the Red, White & Blue pummeled Italian goalie Giulia Gorlero with shots in the closing five minutes of the opening quarter. Kiley Neushul (4:33, counter-attack), Kami Craig (58 seconds, center shot) and Makenzie Fischer (nine seconds, long-distance) all put away chances as the Americans ran out to a 4-1 in equaling the total offense of Italy over the span of the contest in just eight minutes.
Italy would close the gap between the programs down to 5-3 by halftime, however, by outscoring the United States 2-1 in the second quarter to put the Americans’ objective of back-to-back Gold Medals in jeopardy.
Radicchi trimmed the spread to 4-2 at the 5:32 mark by roping in a long-distance chance, but Rachel Fattal exploited a seam in her opposition’s defense for a successful action shot 27 seconds later to once again make it a three-goal lead at 5-2 with 5:05 until the break.
Roberta Bianconi shaved the lead down to a pair prior to the buzzer by pounidng home a counter-attack marker with 59 seconds on the clock to keep Italy in the game at 5-3.
The United States put the game out of reach in the third quarter thanks to timely offense and the heroics of Johnson as the All-America Princeton goalkeeper came up big for her nation repeatedly to turn the tide.
Fattal (7:11, long-distance) and Neushul (4:47, action shot) ignited the offense in the third quarter by zinging the Italians for back-to-back scores in the first 3:30 of the frame to give their teammates some breathing room at 7-3.
The play of the game came at 4:47 as Fischer was whistled for a penalty-foul to place Bianconi one-on-one versus Johnson for a five-meter. However, a weak liner from the shooter and quick reflexes by the U.S. netminder allowed the Princeton goalie to collect the attempt and prevent Italy from pulling closer.
Melissa Seidemann (2:42, counter-attack) and Maggie Steffens (15 seconds, long-distance) sandwiched a scoring skip-shot by Giulia Emmolo (1:44) to permit the Americans to carry a 9-4 lead into the fourth quarter.
The United States continued to pour on the offense as Fischer (7:34, long-distance) and Maddie Musselman (5:20, penalty shot) drove additional coffin-nails into Italy’s Gold Medal hopes to enlarge the margin to 11-4 less than three minutes into the final frame.
Following Johnson’s exit to the bench with 2:32 Italy and the United States traded long-distance goals as Neushul (49 seconds) and Tania di Mario (28 seconds) closed out the scoring with consecutive tallies to set the scoreboard at 12-5 prior to a quick dip in the water and a long-awaited step-up to the top of the medal podium for the Americans.
Statistically, the United States converted on 12-of-28 shots (.429 shooting percentage), including 12-of-21 shots-on-cage, by finishing on two-of-five action shots, one-of-three center shots, six-of-16 on shots from outside five-meters, one-for-one on penalty shots and two-for-two on counter-attacks with a zero-for-one clip on man-up opportunities.
Neushul led the way on offense with a hat-trick (three-for-four). Fischer (two-for-five) and Fattal (two-for-five) flushed pairs of shots into the back of the cage with the quintet of Musselman (one-for-three), Seidemann (one-for-two), Steffens (one-for-two), Mathewson (one-for-two) and Craig (one-for-two) each notching solo strikes.
Johnson, Fischer, Kaleigh Gilchrist, Neushul and Steffens were credited with assists, while Johnson (four), Craig (one), Neushul (one) and Mathewson (one) registered steals as the Americans combined to snatch seven thefts. Musselman, Seidemann and Fattal chipped in field blocks.
