Australia stuns US women's water polo in 'heartbreaking' sudden death

PARIS – Adam Krikorian never felt like a fourth straight gold medal was his team’s destiny, not at the start of the Olympics, not before Thursday’s semifinal match against upstart Australia and certainly not when Maddie Musselman grabbed the ball to take the final shot of the sudden-death period.

Australia goalkeeper Gabriella Palm got her right hand on Musselman’s skip shot, deflecting it wide of the net to give Australia a 14-13 win – 6-5 in the shootout – over the U.S. in women’s water polo at La Defense Arena.

Australia will play Spain in the gold-medal match Saturday, while the three-time defending Olympic champion U.S. meets Netherlands for the bronze.

“There’s certainly always a certain amount of belief of this team that we’re going to get it done, but with that belief there’s always an appropriate amount of fear that we’re not,” Krikorian said. “This is the first time that we’ve had to feel this, this feeling, in some time. We’ve dealt with adversity in so many different ways and this is just another test. This is what life is, the reality of life. You don’t stand on top of the podium every single time.”

The U.S. has been the dominant force in women’s water polo for more than a decade, winning gold medals in the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics (postponed a year due to COVID).

It lost to Spain in pool play earlier this tournament, and got beat Thursday by what Krikorian said was simply “the better team.”

“The Australians were so good, so resilient, so tough mentally and defensively, just their size and length and their goal play were big factors in the game today,” he said.

The U.S led 2-1 after one period and 5-2 after two thanks to a strong defensive effort and the play of goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, but Krikorian said "nerves played a factor" with his young team as Australia clawed back to tie the game three times in the final two periods.

Abby Andrews scored four goals in the third period for Australia to knot the game at 6, and after the U.S. took an 8-6 lead early in the fourth period, Bronte Halligan scored the final two goals of regulation.

Both teams squandered scoring chances in the final minute of regulation, sending the game to a shootout. Jenna Flynn skipped a shot off the post with 23 seconds left for the U.S., and Australia turned the ball over on a bad pass with 3 seconds to play.

“I think that Australia just made less mistakes than us and executed really well, struck to their plan and it’s a disappointing loss for us, for sure,” Johnson said.

Both the U.S. and Australia made their first five shots of the penalty period, putting the game in sudden death.

Zoe Arancini skipped her second shot of the shootout past Johnson, before Palm knocked Musselman’s final shot wide.

“I take penalty shots all the time, it’s just sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t and I got up there and I ripped it and she made a nice block, I’ll give it to her,” Musselman said.

Palm said Musselman typically shoots penalty shots to her lower left, but changed things up Thursday in both attempts of the shootout and on the penalty shot she made in the first period.

“When I touched it, it was just, ‘Frick yeah,' I couldn’t believe I touched it,” she said. “And then it was just the whole process of what that save meant when it did. It was incredible.”

For an Australian team that hasn’t lost this Olympics, the save was validation of the program’s resurgence. Australia won gold in 2000, when women’s water polo made its Olympic debut, but hasn’t medaled since taking bronze in 2012.

For the U.S., Palm’s block closed the chapter on an impressive dozen years of dominance but hardly means the end of an era.

Johnson was her usual impressive self most of the night, blocking 12 shots and holding Australia to 2 of 7 on extra-player opportunities.

Musselman and Flynn, one of the youngest players in the tournament at 20 years old, both scored two goals and 18-year-old Emily Ausmus added one.

Musselman said the loss was “heartbreaking in a lot of ways because of the vision that you have for your group and for your team and where you want to be,” but she promised the U.S. won’t hang its head for Saturday’s bronze medal match.

“It’s fantastic (that we won three golds in a row), but this is about this team,” Krikorian said. “We’re not going to celebrate the last three. Who does that? I mean, I don’t want to be around anyone who’s celebrating the last three championships cause we have hearts broken out there. This is a tough loss, but we’ll take it like the grown-ups we are and the classy people we are and again, I think we’ll be better because of this. Maybe not always better water polo players, but we’ll learn from it as people and human beings.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Australia stuns US women's water polo in 'heartbreaking' sudden death