TORONTO, Canada – Behind the play of Stanford’s Makenzie Fischer, Ashley Grossman ’15, Kiley Neushul ’15, Melissa Seidemann ’13 and Maggie Steffens, the United States won its fourth straight women’s water polo gold medal at the Pan Am Games with a 13-4 victory over Canada on Tuesday.
The win capped an undefeated tournament for Team USA, which also beat Mexico, Cuba, Argentina and Brazil before yesterday’s championship.
Steffens and Fischer were two of the tournament’s top 10 scorers in Toronto. Steffens, the reigning ACWPC Player of the Year, was second at the Pan Am Games with 15 goals in the United States’ five wins. She only misfired on four shots all week and her .790 shot percentage was the best among all competitors.
Fischer tied for eighth overall with 10 goals while Kiley Neushul was the top sprinter at the Pan Am Games, winning the race to the ball 16 times out of 20 (.800).
Great to see @SportsCenter showing the love for our #PanAmGames gold last night. H/t @betsarmstrong1 pic.twitter.com/kH0Ohj5NWX
— USA Water Polo (@USAWP) July 15, 2015
Stanford was responsible for half of Team USA’s goals in its 25-3 tournament-opening victory over Mexico on July 7. Steffens and Grossman each put home four, Neushul tallied three, Seidemann two and Fischer one. The same was true the next day when Cardinal players accounted for nine of the U.S.’s 18 goals in its 18-3 victory against Cuba. Steffens and Fischer each notched a hat trick while Seidemann scored twice and Grossman once.
The United States finished out group play with a 30-3 win against Argentina on July 11 featuring five goals from Fischer, two from Neushul and one each from Steffens and Grossman.
Steffens, who had four hat tricks in five games, was responsible for three more scores in the semifinals on July 12, a 16-3 triumph over Brazil. Seidemann (2), Neushul (1) and Fischer (1) added three combined in the victory as well. Steffens capped off her week with four more goals in the title clincher against Canada while Neushul tallied her seventh of the week in the win.
Team USA scored 102 goals at the Pan Am Games (20.4 per game) and allowed just 16 (3.2 per game).
Next up for the United States is the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia beginning on July 26.
Stanford’s five representatives on the 13-player roster have led the United States to an undefeated 15-0 mark in the months of June and July and gold medals at the Kunshan Cup in China, the FINA World League Super Final in Shanghai and the Pan Am Games in Toronto.
Grossman and Neushul, who recently concluded their Stanford careers with a third national championship in early May, are joined on Team USA by junior and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Steffens, 2013 graduate and fellow 2012 Olympic gold medalist Seidemann and prep standout Fischer, who signed her National Letter of Intent with the Cardinal in mid-November.
The remainder of Stanford’s current squad returned to campus on Wednesday afternoon after representing the United States at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea over the past two weeks.