NANTERRE, France — Ashleigh Johnson made 17 saves, and Rachel Fattal snapped a tie in the fourth quarter, helping the U.S. women’s water polo team edge Hungary, 5-4, in a physical quarterfinal at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday night.
U.S. captain Maggie Steffens scored two goals and played terrific defense on Hungary center Rebecca Parkes down the stretch. The 31-year-old Steffens played the entire game.
The U.S. is going for an unprecedented fourth consecutive gold medal. No team — men or women — has won four straight water polo titles at the Olympics.
Next up for the U.S. is Australia, which advanced with a 9-6 win over Greece. Spain faces Netherlands in the other semifinal Thursday at Paris La Defense Arena.
Spain rolled over Canada for an 18-8 victory, and the Netherlands beat Italy 11-8 in the second quarterfinal.
Hungary pushed the U.S. all the way to the end in another close matchup. Hungary beat the U.S., 10-9, in group play during the Tokyo Games, and it also handed the Americans a 10-8 loss on July 9. The U.S. topped Hungary, 8-7, for gold at the world championships in Qatar in February.
The matchup at the Paris Games was tied at 4 going into the fourth period. Fattal then put the U.S. ahead to stay with a perfectly slotted shot during a 6-on-4 power play with 3:02 left.
Hungary had a couple of chances to tie it up in the final minutes, but the U.S. used Johnson and its tough defense to hold on.
Hungary finished with 31 shots compared with 22 for the United States. Rita Keszthelyi, Krisztina Garda, Kamilla Farago and Dora Leimeter scored for Hungary.
U.S. star Maddie Musselman was held scoreless. She was credited with three shots.
