Maud Megens is Good... but is She Good Enough to Topple Team USA?
I went back and re-watched the 2021 NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship Final—an 18-9 domination by USC over cross-town rival UCLA.
Not because it was enjoyable; as a fan (which I am first and foremost) it’s hard to watch a game over by halftime. And, I’ve seen enough polo to know that—unlike baseball—there’s no coming back from 5, 6, 7 goals down.
[USC women’s water polo wins NCAA title with record-breaking rout over UCLA]
What I was really following was Maud Megens, the spectacular SC striker who had a finals performance for the ages: six goals, three assists, three steals. AND a dunk of the UCLA goal at game’s end (could this be on the order of Terrell Owens TWICE putting the football on the Dallas Cowboys star after scoring touchdowns against America’s team?)
It might be said that Megens is the greatest of Jovan Vavic’s many international recruits; not because he wasn’t successful drawing to Troy talent all over the world over two decades (he was), but because Megens grew so much in stature during her five years at Southern Cal.
On Sunday she proved the point: the Trojan Women were far better than UCLA, their bitterest rival, with the match’s only Olympian in the water. Earlier this year, the 6-2 striker helped her native Holland to a spot in the 2021 Olympics, which will be contested this summer (maybe!) in Tokyo.
Early in the second period, with her team already leading 4-2, Megens hammered a shot home “Upper 90” (as they say in soccer); a strike from six meters that lasered into the left-hand corner of the UCLA cage—and one that Jahmea Bent, the Bruins goalie had zero chance of stopping.
It’s a shot that only five or six women in the world make consistently, a list that includes Americans Rachel Fattal, Maddie Musselman and Maggie Steffens; Roser Tarragó of Spain, Ekaterina Prokofyeva of Russia and Megens’ Dutch teammate Sabrina Van der Sloot. And one so devastating that you can say “game over” if hit consistently. Which she did, hitting another strike in the second half after UCLA coach Adam Wright had inserted Georgia Phillips in goal.
But there were other things she did in the water against a UCLA team that had tagged her team with its only loss this season—ones that absolutely separated Megens from the rest of the players on both sides of the ball. Her lob pass to Mireia Gurial on a 6-on-5 opportunity early in period two was perfectly placed, as was her headman pass to Gurial—also in the second period—that broke her free for a score.
She also plays defense, doing the little things that make a cumulative—albeit unnoticed—difference in the final score.
In her USC career—where she will finish with 219 goals, good for fifth all-time—Megens has collected two NCAA titles (2018, 2020), two MPSF Player of the Year awards (2018, 2020), and will almost certainly be named the Cutino Award winner (assuming the ceremony is held this year). She gave the Trojans everything they could have hoped for when she arrived in 2017.
Megens competing against Canada in 2019 at the Holiday Cup. Photo: Sherie Key / USAWP
The larger questions is: what can she accomplish in the 2021 Tokyo Games? The Americans are the favorites and should be an automatic semifinalist. They have depth, experience and—paradoxically—youth, thanks to the retirement of Kiley Neushul. U.S. Coach Adam Krikorian has had more than a year to prepare; even though some of his top players are a year older, so are all the others in the Tokyo competition.
That said, the Dutch are a potential dark horse for Tokyo, specifically because of Megens and also due to their goaltending situation. Two years ago, Laura Aarts, their top goalie, quit the team. This was a huge loss; Aarts was the best goalie at the 2018 European Championships. Now Joanne Koenders is Coach Arno Havenga’s likely first choice for the Dutch cage—and the 24-year-old Koenders has had an additional year of training.
In fact, before everything fell apart due COVID, the Dutch and the Yanks played a barn-burner of a match at Princeton in 2019. The USAWP Holiday Cup saw a thrilling match that was decided when U.S. goalie Ashleigh Johnson stuffed Van der Sloot on a penalty try, preserving a tie and ultimately allowing the host Americans to escape with a 23-22 win.
[USA Water Polo Holiday Cup: US Women Escape with Win On Penalties in Sudden Death; Streak Now at 65]
But, the Dutch weakness is the Americans’ strength. One of the world’s best players is Ashleigh Johnson, Team USA’s goalie, That, and the overall strength of the American roster–ten of the 12 athletes selected are almost sure to be gold medalists, while Steffens and Melissa Seidemann will be chasing a third gold medal—which make it almost impossible to bet against the U.S.
But, that’s why the play the games. And the Dutch have depth, desire, history—in 2008 the Americans were a heavy favorite to take gold in Beijing, before Daniëlle de Bruijn stunned them with seven goals on route to a 9-8 Dutch win in the final.
Megens will be a big part of this, as will teammates Bente Rogge and Kitty-Lynn Joustra. Rogge just completed her career at Arizona State while Joustra has been a Golden Bear the past three seasons. The good news is this trio has a depth of familiarity with their American counterparts.
The (likely) bad news is that this won’t stop Team USA from storming to yet another gold and Olympic immortality. But with Maud on their side, the Dutch have more than a fighting chance.