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First Posted: 8/7/2012 (AP) Adam Krikorian made a terrible blunder, and it almost cost the U.S. a spot in the Olympic water polo final.
Lucky for him, Maggie Steffens and Kami Craig were there to pick up their beleaguered coach.
Steffens and Craig scored in overtime after Krikorian handed a last-second penalty to Australia, and the Americans advanced with an 11-9 victory Tuesday.
In a bruising match between the favorites coming into the London Games, the Americans appeared to have the win wrapped up in regulation after Australia captain Kate Gynther's shot rattled the crossbar in the closing seconds.
But with one second on the clock, Krikorian called a timeout without his team having possession of the ball an automatic penalty. Australia's Southern Ash converted the shot to tie it at 9 and force overtime.
"We looked at each other and said 'We've been through this before,'" Steffens said of the team huddle ahead of the extra session. "Nothing's going to affect us. We're going to be the team that finishes this. We knew that whatever it came down to, we're going to keep fighting."
And the Americans did just that, with Steffens leading the way on the offensive end.
The 19-year-old Steffens, who raised her tournament tally to 16 goals, put the U.S. ahead halfway through the first of two three-minute overtime periods with a skip shot. Then Craig slotted home from close range to finish the scoring and give the Americans another shot at their first gold medal in the women's event.
Even on a team with two four-time Olympians Brenda Villa and Heather Petri playing in their last games, there may have been no one more relieved on the U.S. bench than Krikorian.
"I was feeling horrible. There's thoughts that go through your mind: 'Man, I might have blown this one,'" he said of his timeout call. "It's all a bit of a blur, but ultimately I made a big mistake. ... To be honest, after it happened, it took me a couple of minutes to take a deep breath and realize what I had done and get out of the funk."
But the team's response to his mistake, he said, was evidence of just how much the squad has developed since he took over in 2009.
"When you mess up, you've got to own up to it. They came over and I said, 'My bad.' This is not going to stop us," he said. "We've made mistakes before and we've overcome a lot of adversity over the last three and a half years so one stupid call by the coach isn't going to affect the team's performance."
The U.S. will face Spain or Hungary in Thursday's final.
The U.S., long one of the world powers in women's water polo, has medaled in the tournament at every Olympics since the game debuted in 2000, but it has never won gold. It earned silver in Sydney, bronze four years later in Athens and then silver again in Beijing in 2008.
For Australia, the loss was doubly painful, coming four years after it lost 9-8 to the U.S. in the semifinals at the Beijing Olympics.
"It's pretty devastating after four years of hard work," Ash said. "We never gave up, but it just wasn't there at the end. Credit to the USA. They put up a very good fight."
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Ryan Lucas can be reached on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/relucasz
<a title="Associated Press" href="http://www.ap.org" class="url org fn">Associated Press</a>

US women advance to Olympic water polo final