CdM alumna Maddie Musselman shines as Team USA women’s water polo tops Australia
Corona del Mar High alumna Maddie Musselman wowed the crowd from the very first minute Tuesday night.
The Team USA women’s water polo star earned an exclusion off a drive, giving her team an early power play in the exhibition match against Australia at Long Beach City College.
Musselman then fired a no-look shot into the right corner to put her team on the scoreboard.
“I’ve been working on it,” she said with a smile after the match.
There was plenty to smile about from both an individual and team perspective. Musselman had four goals and four assists as Team USA earned a 14-8 win over Australia in the second of their three-match series this week.
Musselman said U.S. coach Adam Krikorian positioned her on the 4-5 side (right side) of the pool on Tuesday; usually she plays across on the 1-2 side. It didn’t seem to matter.
“It was fun, a different perspective,” said Musselman, who scored all four of her shot attempts. “We talked about our movement, and that’s kind of one of my strengths, being able to drive and move. I’m usually visualizing myself doing that on the 1-2 side, but being able to do it on the 4-5 side, I kind of surprised myself a little bit to be honest.”
Newport Harbor High graduate Kaleigh Gilchrist was the other local to make it into the water, tallying an assist and two field blocks.
Though the Olympic team has yet to be officially named, Musselman, 25, and Gilchrist, 31, are expected to be veteran leaders as Team USA tries for its fourth straight Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer. Both Back Bay products have already twice won Olympic gold.
Musselman, who was the Olympic MVP in Tokyo in 2021, has had an eventful quad leading up to Paris. She took time off from the sport following a 2022 hip surgery, enrolling in a graduate pre-physician assistant program at Temple University.
She also got married last September to Pat Woepse, who like Musselman played water polo at UCLA. That was around the same time that Woepse was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer.
“She’s been going through a lot, and I think it’s given her a lot of perspective and made her realize how much she does love water polo and what she does,” Gilchrist said. “I think that’s given her a new outlook of why she’s playing. Only she knows how tough her journey and Pat’s journey are, but it’s inspiring as a teammate to see her do all that, see them do all that, then come here and perform the way she does.”
Musselman joked that she and her good friend Gilchrist are injury buddies of sorts, as they’ve had to go through plenty of rehabilitation — though never at the same time. She called Gilchrist “my hype woman,” while Gilchrist said it’s been healthy to bounce frustrations and motivations off each other.
Team USA also got four goals from Tara Prentice in Tuesday’s match, two of those assisted by Musselman. Ryann Neushul and Jewel Roemer each scored twice, and goalkeeper Amanda Longan made 13 saves.
Dani Jackovich had a pair of goals to lead Australia, which also fell to the United States 10-4 in the first match of the series on Sunday in Santa Barbara.
Team USA will go for the sweep on Saturday at noon at Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine. Admission is free.
The Americans will then start a three-match series against China on April 20 at Ocean View High in Huntington Beach.
“It’s definitely a countdown, for sure,” Musselman said. “I think Adam said before this game that we have 11 games left [until the Olympics]. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s not that many.’ These are going to be great opportunities to connect as a group, and so it’s just taking advantage of it and mostly making it about us and our team. Yeah, we’re playing all of these teams that have different styles of play, but it’s going to come down to us. These are learning opportunities, and even when we get to the Olympics there are going to be learning opportunities.”
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