Local trio lead U.S. into semis

The United States Olympic women’s water polo team, which features three Newport Beach residents, is two games away from defending its gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Newport Beach residents Maggie Steffens, Kaleigh Gilchrist and Maddie Musselman help lead Team USA into its semifinal game, which is a rematch against Hungary on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time. The match will stream live at NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports app, and will air on television on delay at 3:30 p.m. on NBC.

Team USA beat Hungary 11-6 in its third and final group play game on Saturday. Hungary was within two goals in the fourth quarter before the United States pulled away.

Team USA, which is top-ranked in the world, beat host Brazil, 13-3, in Monday’s quarterfinal. The United States led 13-0 after three quarters before Brazil scored the final three goals.

“No one likes to talk about defense, it’s not sexy,” U.S. Coach Adam Krikorian said in a release from USA Water Polo. “I thought our defense was great in the first three quarters but I’m not happy with how we played the fourth. I thought we relaxed. It was a little disappointing as we’ve got to play better defense. We got a little lazy and we know in the next two games we’ve got to be sharp for a full four quarters otherwise we’re not going to get the job done. We know there are bigger tests ahead.”

Steffens, the team captain, scored twice against Brazil and leads Team USA with 12 goals in the tournament. Musselman is second on the team with nine goals in the four games so far, and Gilchrist came alive for two goals, two steals and two field blocks in the victory over Brazil.

Team USA, which has UC Irvine women’s coach Dan Klatt and Corona del Mar High alumnus Chris Oeding as its assistant coaches, is appearing in the semifinals for the fifth straight Olympic Games. The American women are trying for their second straight Olympic gold. They have won 10 straight games at the Olympics since losing in the 2008 gold-medal match, and have outscored their opponents in Rio by a combined 47-16.

Hungary beat one of the pre-tournament favorites, Australia, in a 13-11 shootout win in the quarterfinals. Barbara Bujka led the Hungarians with two goals in regulation and another in the shootout, which Hungary won, 5-3.

Australia was the only team this year to beat the U.S., while Hungary is 0-4 against Team USA. Besides the game earlier in the Olympics, Team USA swept Hungary in a three-game series in late June and early July on the East Coast. The closest game was the last one, which the United States won, 10-7, on July 2 at Fordham University in New York.

Hungary is in the semifinals for the third straight Olympics, having finished fourth at both the 2008 Games in Beijing and the 2012 Games in London.

The winner of Wednesday’s semifinal will play either Russia or Italy in the title match on Friday.