US Women’s Water Polo Team Wins Third Straight Olympic Gold originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Maggie Steffens and the U.S. Women’s Water Polo Team became the first team to win three straight Olympic gold medals, defeating Spain, 13-4 in the gold medal match Saturday night.
The U.S women dominated from start to finish.
Alys Williams, who attended UCLA, got the scoring going early with an outside just seconds into the game. Rachel Fattal found Stephens for the second U.S. goal with 3:36 to left in the first quarter. Maddie Musselman got in the mix with a six on four-goal on the near side to give the U.S. a 3-1 lead in the final seconds of the first.
In the second Makenzie Fischer score a goal with the shot clock expiring and another power-play goal to give the U.S. a 5-1 lead with seven minutes left in the second.
Spain was able to get one back but the U.S. women scored two more goals before the end of the half to head up 7-4.
Team USA took over in the second half, only allowing one goal the rest from Spain for the rest of the game and adding seven goals themselvesto win the game 14-5. It was the largest margin of victory in a gold medal match.
Steffens scored six goals in the gold medal match to extend her mark as the all-time leading scorer in Women’s Olympic Water Polo history with 56.
Steffens became the sport’s all-time leading scorer in the Olympics, passing Italy’s Tania Di Mario in the Team USA’s semifinal win over the Russian Olympic Committee.
Steffens entered the world stage at the 2012 London Olympics. Her performance was historic as she tied the record for most goals in a single Olympics (21) and most goals in a single game (7) and was named MVP of the tournament.
The Danville, California native returned for the 2016 Rio Olympics to lead Team USA in goals again and clinch the second consecutive gold for the U.S. Women’s Water Polo Team.