usa water polo

My youngest son and I watched the fourth and final game of the USA / Croatia men’s water polo exhibition series last night. Croatia won the first three games, but Team USA finished off the series with a 7-5 win at Long Beach State.

Here are some pictures of the action…

Alex Bowen scored two in the final game, including this second period goal with one of Croatia’s biggest (6′ 7″ / 250+) players on his back.

Max Irving scored a goal in the fourth period, but I missed the shot so here’s a picture from earlier in the game.

Thomas Dunstan was the scoring leader for Team USA with three goals, including this one with about 2 minutes left in the third period.

Nic Carniglia added this score at the end of the third period.

If you ever wondered how hard these guys shoot the ball, this picture might give some indication…

Final score: USA 7, Croatia 5.

The USA men’s senior national water polo team returned to the Riverside Aquatics Center at Riverside City College last night to host an exhibition game against Croatia.

Since we are a water polo family, we were there.

The last time we watched team USA play in Riverside was back in 2015 when the team took on Serbia. Team USA won that game 9-5.

Unfortunately, team USA lost this game against Croatia 10-12.

The Croatian men’s team is in California for three more exhibition games against team USA:

• 06/11/17 at Stanford in Palo Alto (Tony Azevedo’s final game)
• 06/13/17 at Oaks Christian High School in Thousand Oaks
• 06/14/17 at Long Beach State

Here are some pictures of the action from last night.

For a complete recap and to check the schedule, please visit USA Water Polo’s website.

Alex Bowen led team USA with five goals:

McQuin Baron had seven saves for team USA:

Luca Cupido scored two goals for team USA: