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Former Stanford All-American and two-time Olympic gold medalist Maggie Steffens scored on a power play to snap a tie and lead the United States senior women’s national water polo team to a 12-9 victory over the Netherlands on Tuesday in group play of the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
Madeline Musselman and Kaleigh Gilchrist each scored three times to pace the Americans (18-0, 2-0), who meet South Africa on Thursday in the final game of group play.
Stanford senior Makenzie Fischer and Cardinal grads Melissa Seidemann and Kiley Neushul also scored for the U.S., which has won 49 straight dating to April of 2018 and 83 of 84 overall.
The Americans defeated the Netherlands for the 13th straight time, dating to a Dutch victory in December of 2015.
The Netherlands, which held leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-3, tied the match at 7-all on a penalty shot with 1:54 remaining in the third period.
A Dutch exclusion prompted a timeout by U.S. coach Adam Krikorian, a Mountain View native, and that led to Steffens’ goal with 1:20 left.
Seidemann gave the U.S. a 9-7 edge early in the fourth period following a Musselman steal. Neushul scored to make it 10-7 midway through the third.
The Netherlands made it interesting, closing to within 10-9 with 2:39 remaining to play but Musselman and Rachel Fattal each scored in the final 1:27 to clinch it.
Amanda Longan recorded eight saves for the U.S., which went 4 of 9 on power plays and limited the Dutch to 1 of 6.