Local Women Close in on Gold

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In the stands around the Olympic pool in Brazil, the Fischer family finds hometown fans Sara and Fernando, who live at Thousand Steps Beach. Photo by Leslie Fischer.

Fans of the U.S. women’s water polo team, which includes two Laguna Beach sisters, can watch the gold medal Olympic match set for 11:30 a.m. PST Friday, Aug. 19, among friends at Hennessey’s Tavern and Big Fish Tavern providing the NBC Olympic channel is televising it live.

Managers at the two Laguna Beach restaurants intend to tune in to watch the hometown players, Makenzie and Aria Fischer, compete for the gold medal.

On Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, the American women won against Hungary 14-10 to advance to the gold medal round.

Local fans resort to watching the women’s water polo semi-final on a tablet Wednesday because NBC kept shifting to other Olympic events. Photo by Jody Tiongco.
Local fans resort to watching the women’s water polo semi-final on a tablet Wednesday because NBC kept shifting to other Olympic events.
Photo by Jody Tiongco.
USA water polo fans, from left, Alex Del Toro, Jesse Smithnosky, Mary Kate and Kirk Saunders, cheer at Big Fish Tavern as they watch the women's team defeat Hungary 14-10. The gold medal match is Friday, Aug. 19.
USA water polo fans, from left, Alex Del Toro, Jesse Smithnosky, Mary Kate and Kirk Saunders, cheer at Big Fish Tavern as they watch the women’s team defeat Hungary 14-10. The gold medal match is Friday, Aug. 19. Photo by Marilynn Young.

“We’re playing hookie and watching this,” said Mary Kate Saunders, accompanied by her husband, Kirk. Their son was a  classmate of Makenzie Fischer at Laguna Beach High School. They sent a text to friend Alex Del Toro to join them. His daughter also played with the Fischer sisters on the LBHS team.

They were forced to watch the game live-stream over the internet from a small tablet computer as the NBC broadcast kept toggling back to Olympic basketball.

Local Jesse Smithnosky, 34, volunteered his flip book when Big Fish’s manager, Chris Berg, struggled for 30 minutes to tune in Wednesday’s semi-final match.

The American women will meet the team from Italy, who beat Russia 10-5 in the other semi-final match on Wednesday.

The U.S. shot 50 percent on the day, and matched their nine player goal scoring output from the quarterfinals with nine different players scoring a goal again Wednesday. Maddie Musselman and Kiley Neushul also had two goals each, said NBC Olympic web site.

The U.S. team defeated Brazil in the quarterfinal round 13-3 on Monday, Aug. 15, the highest-ever margin of victory for an Olympic women’s water polo match.

Makenzie Fischer, 19, led the Monday game with two goals as nine U.S. players scored in the first half of the match.

Also on the team is Fischer’s sister, LBHS senior, Aria.

Prior to Wednesday’s match, the Americans were shooting 44 percent in the tournament, according to the Olympic web site.

Team USA won gold at the 2012 London Games and medaled at every Olympic Games since women’s water polo was added in 2000. The London team featured another Laguna Beach player, Annika Dries.

In Rio, the USA women’s team beat Hungary 11-6 in round-robin play last week.

Hungary beat Australia 13-11 after falling behind in the first half and coming back to win in a tense shoot out.

Russia’s women defeated Spain 12-10 and faced Italy’s women, who reached the semifinals with a 12-7 victory over China.

 

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