LIMA, PERU. Team USA is the big story here because of their out-sized success—their 54 match win streak is the longest in the Olympic era for either men’s or women’s polo—but the excitement of the first day of polo competition was carried by Peru’s Nizerrat Gauthier-Asmat. All of 15 years old and a polo participant for only two years, Gauthier-Asmat tallied the first-ever goal scored by her country in the history of the Pan American games.
The Peruvians—fielding men’s and women’s water polo teams in the Pan Ams for the first time in history—are perhaps the most endearing storyline here at the Villa Maria del Triunfo Aquatics Complex. Despite a 22-1 drubbing at the hands of the Mexicans, a partisan crowd loudly cheered every positive play by their women.
“It’s our first goal and our opening game and that feels awesome—but it feels awesome because in the water my name is not Nizerrat, my partner’s name is not Miranda—we’re Peru,” Gauthier Asmat said following the match. “When my hand was on the ball and it went in the goal: it was Wow! Peru made the goal.”
“It feels incredible,” she added.
Peru and their precocious youngster will get another chance to make history—this time with a win—when they face Canada today in Group B play.
With a convincing win over Puerto Rico, the defending Pan American Games champion U.S. women’s water polo team continues a winning streak that has reach epic proportions. Stephania Haralabidis—thrust into a role on the 11-person U.S. roster due to Paige Hauschild’s injury—scored six goals on six shots for the victorious Americans.
After the Americans’ match, Haralabidis, who has emerged as a strong contender to make the final roster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where Team USA will be favored to capture a third-straight goal, spoke about the circumstances that had her in the water Sunday at the de Triunfo Aquatics Complex.
“In the beginning it was disappointing I was not in the top eleven,” she said following her team’s win. “At the same time when me and Paige switched it was very upsetting because it was not her fault what happened in South Korea.”
USA’s Stephania Haralabidis in white cap. Photo Courtesy: Catharyn Hayne
Hauschild’s loss is certainly Haralabidis’ gain; the American women continue to dominate their competition and are overwhelming favorites to win a third-straight Olympic gold. Puerto Rico went scoreless until three minutes left in the third period before Osmarie Quinones Colon finally got her team on the scoreboard. However, Team USA had already scorched the nets 15 times. The tally by Colon and then Milena Guzman Ortiz two minutes later only briefly blunted an American attack that delivered a 23-3 victory, one of a number of lopsided wins on the opening day of men’s and women’s water polo action.
Joining the U.S. scoring party with three goals apiece were Makenzie Fischer, Jamie Neushul and Alys Williams. For Puerto Rico, Peria Roman Maldonado beat goalie Ashleigh Johnson on a shot with 27 seconds remaining to excite a vocal cheering section of Puerto Rican fans.
Angel Manuel Muniz Suarez can attest to just how well the American women are playing right now.
“You have to play perfect to beat that team,” Muniz Suarez, a long-time assistant to the Puerto Rican program, said after his team’s one-sided loss. “I don’t know if there’s a team in the world that can beat them right now.”
Puerto Rico will look to rebound against a Venezuela squad that has struggled to find consistent pool time given the deepening economic and political troubles at home. Today they dropped a 15-4 decision to the Brazilians. However, Venezuelan Head Coach Gilberto Caceres was not discouraged by his team’s circumstances or by Sunday’s tournament-opening loss.
Stating in Spanish that he’s looking forward to the five matches to be played here in Lima, Caceres expressed his gratitude to both the Peruvians as well as the Brazilian water polo association, where his team was able to practice prior to Pan Ams.
Admitting that preparations for this tournament were disrupted by his country’s problems, he nonetheless believes that his team has a chance to finish in the top five here.
The Venezuela women look forward to matches against Puerto Rico today and Mexico tomorrow, and their coach believes they will finish well now that they have consistent competition and playing conditions—something that has been recently impossible for his team.
Brazil’s Victoria Chamorro. Photo Courtesy: Cristiane Mattos / Lima 2019
Next up for the Americans is a match Monday versus Brazil. Two Brazilians know as well as anyone just how difficult a match-up with the Americans present are goalie Victoria Chamorro, a goalie from 2015-2018 for USC, and Viviane Bahia, who spent a season playing at Arizona State. Both were on the squad for the 2016 Rio Olympics that dropped a 13-3 decision to the U.S. in the quarterfinals.
“I’ve played against some of them on the international level, some at NCAAs and some of them were my past teammates at USC,” said Chamorro, who has faced or played with every player on the American squad. “It’s a great opportunity to see where we’re at against the best.”
Then, perhaps to reinforce a positive approach towards a team that has not lost in more than a year, Chamorro added: “We’re in the same pool—we all have two arms, two legs and we’re all going to play the same game.”
Perhaps not. The U.S. has never dropped a match against Brazil in Pan American play; their last encounter was at the 2015 Games in Toronto, when the Americans won 16-3 as part of their run to a fourth straight gold medal.
In other play, Cuba lost to Canada 20 – 5 as the Canadians got four goals from Indiana graduate Shae Fournier, a hat trick apiece from Emma Wright—a rising senior at Cal Berkeley—and Monica Eggers, a 2013 graduated of Hawai’i , and five saves from Jessica Gaudreault, also a former Hoosier. Next up for Head Coach David Paradelo’s squad is a match today against host Peru.
Canada ’s Krystina Alogbo and Cuba’s Mayelin Bernal. Photo Courtesy: Cristiane Mattos / Lima 2019
Paradelo, who hopes to face the Americans only in the finals, was sanguine about his team’s chances to qualify for the Olympics at this tournament. Team USA is already in by virtue of a win in June at the FINA World League Super Final; baring a titanic upset, whomever else joins them will also be booked for Tokyo.
“We go one game at a time—a lot of things can happen in water polo, especially on the women’s side.” he said. “We know so much about the U.S. that when we get to that game we prepare for [it].”
Just like everyone else has.
Congratulations