The U.S. men's national water polo team, with three Long Beach players, routed Canada, 24-0, and the women's team defeated Brazil, 10-0, Saturday in FINA World League Prelim games.
But the U.S. Men's team were beaten by Brazil late Saturday night, according to U.S.A. Water Polo, which reported:
The USA Men's National Team lost a heartbreaker to Brazil, 13-12, in a shootout, on day two of the FINA World League Prelims. Brazil battled back from a three goal deficit in the third period to force a tie after regulation and a shootout. Marcelo Chagas stopped the final two USA shooters in the shootout to earn the victory and send the USA Men to their first loss of the prelims. Read more details here.
The U.S. women's team will face Canada at 7:20 p.m. Sunday, a rematch of the Americans' 11-7 victory Friday.
At the competition, at Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, the men's team was to compete again Saturday night. Three members of the team are from Long Beach: Tony Tony Azeveda, Ryan Bailey and Chay Lapin.
Among others on the team, Paul Reynolds (Santa Ana) and Collin Smith each scored five goals in the men's game, Shea Buckner (Villa Park) four, former UC Irvine standout Brandon Johnson three, Alex Bowen, Alex Obert and Michael Rosenthal two each and Jeffrey Schwimer (Beverly Hills) one.
Goalkeeper Andy Stevens (Orange) recorded the shutout in the U.S.' first game of the three-team tournament that will help determine seeding for the FINA World League Super Finals, which will be played June 11-16 in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
The U.S. led 6-0 at the end of the first quarter, 13-0 at halftime and 21-0 after three quarters.
In the women's game, Annika Dries (Laguna Beach), Jillian Kraus (Santa Ana) and Lolo Silver (Long Beach) scored two goals and Courtney Mathewson (Anaheim Hills), Kelly Rulon, Maggie Steffens and Monica Vavic (Palos Verdes) one each.
Goalkeeper Betsey Armstrong recorded the shutout.
The U.S. led 1-0 at the end of the first quarter, 3-0 at halftime and 8- 0 at the end of three quarters, improving to 2-0 in the tournament that will help determine seeding for the FINA World League Super Finals, which will be played June 1-6 in Beijing.
The U.S. men's team will conclude tournament play Monday by facing Canada at 8 a.m. and Brazil at 3 p.m.
- City News Service
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.