U.S. women’s water polo rallies against ROC to make gold-medal match

The self-proclaimed “badass” United States women’s water polo team appeared on the verge of an epic letdown.

Having gone unbeaten while winning the last two Olympics competitions, the Americans faced a three-goal deficit late in the first half Thursday against the Russian Olympic Committee.

A loss would send the U.S. to the bronze-medal game, an unlikely destination for the heavy favorites.

But after scoring twice in the final 39 seconds of the first half, the U.S. rallied for a 15-11 victory Thursday at the Tatsumi Water Polo Centre.

The Americans will play the winner of the other semifinal between Spain and Hungary in the championship Saturday. The U.S. lost to Hungary, 10-9, in the preliminary round, the Americans’ first loss since falling to the Netherlands in the gold-medal match in 2008 in the Beijing Olympics.

The U.S. had won 12 consecutive Olympics matches before falling to the Hungarians, capturing the gold in 2012 in London and in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, outscoring its six opponents 73-32 in the latter Summer Games.

The Americans won Thursday thanks to a late surge. Aria Fischer pumped her right arm in celebration of her goal that nudged the U.S. into a 12-11 lead with 5:05 left. Alys Williams added one goal and Madeline Musselman followed with two more to extend the advantage. Goaltender Ashleigh Johnson made a couple of impressive saves to prevent a comeback.

Musselman finished with five goals and Margaret Steffens, the all-time leading scorer in Olympic competition, had three.