WHOA - Two nail-biter games for USA Water Polo!

The last two nights have been CRAZY ones for USA Water Polo, with both the women and the men squeaking by to move on to the semi finals.

Last night was a huge game for the women as they went head-to-head with Hungary. The Hungarians are a very strong team and this could have easily been the match up for the Gold medal game. But since our team lost a game to Spain earlier in the Olympics, they ended up meeting Hungary earlier in the seeding.

In all of my years shooting for the team, I have never seen such a low scoring game. At the end of the first quarter, the US had only scored 2 goals. Basically, it was a defensive battle by both teams. Ashleigh Johnson and the Hungarian goaltender were both on fire.

I saw the Steffens clan (Maggie Steffen's family) cheering in the stands and had to get a photo of that. We had dinner with them earlier in the evening and I told them I would find them for a photo.

Maddie Musselman and the rest of the women did everything they could to stop the women from Hungary.

This is a tough photo to take since I am forcing the camera to focus beyond the net and into the face of the athlete. I am always happy when I can make that work.

Another big stop by Ashleigh.

The center position is really hard to photograph, since they spend the bulk of the game sparring underwater or just above the surface of the water. But I have made a conscious effort to get photos for the centers too.

I have started zooming out a bit more to show what is happening in front of the net.  And this was a tense moment as the score was tied most of the game, and the women were trying to hold off an offensive push by the opponent.

When a game is this close and this tense, I know that the real photo is not the action in the pool as much as the reaction from the athletes and the fans. So, at those big moments, I quickly move the lens to the bench and hope to get this emotion. This is my favorite photo from this game with Rachel Fattel scoring what would be the game winning goal with 3 minutes left. You can tell that this was an important game for the team.

And this was the reaction as the clock ran down to zero.

The women took the time to get some photos with their families.

I saw Ashleigh and Maggie in the mix zone and knew that these two (who are also roommates here at the Olympics) would want a nice photo. Now we move on to the semi-finals tomorrow night against Australia.

And then there was tonight's game with the men of USA Water Polo squaring off against the Australian team. Yes, we are facing the Aussies back-to-back in both the men's and women's matches. And this game was even more stressful!

The men always start their games with a group meeting in front of their net. At the end of that pep talk, they all jump high in the water. I am always ready for this shot.

Just like the women's game, this was a defensive battle as well. And also like the women's game, both goaltenders put on a show. In my mind, the star player for Team USA was Adrian Weinberg who stopped many big shots.

This photo shows Adrian stopping a penalty shot. The photo tells the story as you can see the ball hitting his left arm. It was a big stand by the goalie.

As the team photographer, I am always looking for photos that are different from the others I have taken. I have a lot of photos of the guys high above the water taking the big shot, but here is a backhand shot taken late in the 4th quarter.

And we had a penalty shot of our own.

And yes, once again I took some photos of the center. Ben Hallock came up to me after the 3rd game and said "hey, we need more photos of the centers!" I always aim to please!

Another tough shot through the net. I am talking about my shot, not his. :)

The men were trailing this game 5 to 2 at one point and it was looking pretty bleak, but they rallied back with 4 unanswered points to take the lead.

And once again, the same story is told looking at this photo of the bench. You can tell that this was a close game and that everything was on the line.

The game ended in a 7 to 7 tie and was headed for a shoot-out.

I did not realize that they switch sides at this point, and I was on the WRONG side of the pool to shoot the images I needed. Once I realized this, I grabbed the attention of the assistant photo manager who was on the pool deck and pleaded to move (even though we are not supposed to move once a quarter has started). With a little desperation in my voice, he gave me clearance and I ran to the other side of the pool to get these photos.

The Aussies scored on their first two shots, but then Adrian stopped the next two attempts.

The Americans really needed this win!

This next sequence of images shows Marko Vakic taking the 5th shot for the US and scoring the HUGE goal to clinch the win.

Whenever there are penalty shots, I crank up the burst mode of the Canon R1 from 15 frames per second to 30 frames per second. 

Here are three of those frames showing the shot and the ball entering the net...

...and the ball hitting the back of the net!

And then the men celebrated their huge victory. This is the farthest the men have gotten since the Beijing Summer Olympics back in 2008. 

I saw Dejan Udovicic, the coach, smiling and knew that this was rarity. I better get the shot! Later, while editing in the press room after the game, I said to Greg (my contact at USAWP), "hey I got TWO photos of Dejan smiling at these Olympics! How about that?!"

This last photo shows Alex Bowen and his fiance, Hilary having a quick exchange at the pool deck. I was sitting with Hilary at dinner and she asked if I could get some photos of her and the family in the venue. So I knew where she was sitting and figured that they would meet up after this big win. I love the emotion captured in her face.

And so both teams move on and the fun continues!

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