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U.S. women lose first Olympic water polo match in 13 years

Posted at 11:45 PM, Jul 27, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-28 02:52:29-04

The United States women's water polo team on Wednesday suffered its first loss in Olympic competition since the gold-medal match at Beijing in 2008.

Thirteen years. Poof! 

Hungary, a traditional "old continent" power in the sport, matched the Americans with two goals in the first quarter and three in the second, setting the stage for a wild second half.

The U.S. jumped ahead 8-6 heading into the fourth quarter, but Hungary tied it up 9-9 late. And with a mere 45 seconds left in the match. Rebecca Parkes flipped an overhead shot past U.S. goaltender Ashleigh Johnson for the difference-maker.

Maddie Musselman scored a hat trick and Makenzie Fischer and Rachel Fattal each scored twice for the Americans, who fell to 2-1 in group stage play and remains in position to advance to the knockout rounds with one more preliminary match to play.

Hungary improved to 2-0-1.