World Championships: Ioanna Stamatopoulou Leads Greece to Gold; Spain Tips U.S. for Bronze
Ioanna Stamatopoulou was outstanding in goal Wednesday in the women’s water polo final of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, her 16 saves leading Greece to a 12-9 win over Hungary.
Spain beat the United States, 13-12, for the bronze medal, the second consecutive major event at which the Americans have finished fourth and failed to medal.
The gold medal is the first for Greece since the 2011 tournament. It hasn’t medaled at a Worlds since, the closest brush finishing fourth last year in Doha.
“I hope it gives motivation to other people to play, to start watching the sport so that it’s more popular,” Greece’s Foteini Tricha said. “We’re really proud that we represented our country well.”
It caps a long journey for Greece, which finished second in its group and had to navigate the crossover round to get into the quarterfinals. It opened the tournament with a 10-9 loss to Hungary.
“We just thought: we just keep going, keep pushing,” Greek captain Eleftheria Plevritou said. “It didn’t mean anything. After the quarterfinals, all the games, you don’t even remember that you lost the first game. In this final, we were winning the whole game. We were in front in the score. We were amazing.”
Ioanna Stamatopoulou; Photo Courtesy: World Aquatics/Singapore 2025
Greece led start to finish in the battle for gold, up 3-1 after one quarter and 8-4 at half. Stamatopoulou was a major reason why, holding Hungary to 9-for-38 shooting on the day (24 percent) and just 6-for-28 on action shots (21 percent).
“She’s the best goalkeeper in the tournament,” Plevritou said. “She deserves it. Yes, I’m really happy for everybody.”
Tricha and Eleni Xenaki both shot 3-for-3 and added an assist to lead Greece. Margarita Plevritou and Stefania Santa scored two goals apiece, Santa adding three assists. Xenaki was named the MVP of the final, and Tricha finished as the tournament’s top scorer.
“It’s a great feeling,” Tricha said. “I’m really proud of my team, and of everyone representing my country. We played the best we could. We believed in ourselves, in our team, our system, and that led us to winning the gold.”
Stamatopoulou frustrated Hungary’s big scorers. Rita Keszthelyi, named the MVP of the tournament, shot 1-for-6 from the field. Krisztina Garda was held off the score sheet on three shots. Dorottya Szilagyi shot 1-for-3 but added three assists.
Panna Tiba and Kata Hajdu scored twice each for Hungary. Boglarka Neszmely kept them in it with 11 saves.
“We were not that sharp in the beginning in defense, and we were struggling,” Keszthelyi said. “We were not that patient in offense. Today, the Greek team were better than us, and they deserve this win.”
It’s another missed opportunity for hardware for the Americans, who trailed early to Spain and never recovered. Anni Espar’s goal early in the third quarter put Spain up 8-4, which was enough of a cushion.
The Americans got within a goal on three occasions in the fourth quarter. They had two looks at the ball with a chance to tie, but Spain’s defense stopped them from even getting a shot attempt.
“The defense was better today,” Espar said. “Maybe at the end we needed to be a little bit more on top of the left-hander (Emma Lineback) that was scoring a lot of goals, so I think that’s something we can improve for next time, to be able to recognize what’s working for them. But in general terms, the defense was pretty good, much better than Monday.”
Espar was outstanding, with four goals and four assists. Bea Ortiz scored twice. Martina Terre stopped 10 shots. Spain won despite Elena Ruiz being held to 0-for-6 shooting. She did add two assists.
The medal is the second straight bronze for Spain, which has medaled at each of the last three editions of the World Championships and five of six. Wednesday was a modicum of revenge on the U.S., which beat Spain for gold in 2017 and 2019 and also topped them in the semifinals last year on the way to gold.
Emma Lineback led the U.S. with five goals on six shots. Emily Ausmus had a hat trick. Jewel Roemer paired two goals with four assists, and Ryann Neushul added two goals. Amanda Longan made six saves.
“It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of lessons learnt through that,” American coach Adam Krikorian said. “Processes are going to be really important for this young group and this team is completely different. We have so many new players and so many young players that are experiencing this for the first time, and they have a long way to grow, and need to grow. Clearly, we’re not at the level of the best teams in the world right now, but at least we know much better now after this summer where we stand and what we need to work on, and that’s most important.”
In the placement games, Fleurien Bosveld had three goals and two assists to lead the Netherlands to fifth place with a 13-11 win over Australia. Italy found its offense in the seventh-place game, beating Japan 20-15 behind an 11-4 margin in the middle two quarters. Lucrezia Cergol and Agnese Cocchiere each shot 5-for-5, and Roberta Bianconi added four goals. China edged New Zealand, 10-6, for ninth place, and Great Britain beat France, 14-9, in the battle for 11th.
Gold medalist Greece; Photo Courtesy: Singapore 2025/World Aquatics
Final Standings
- Gold: Greece
- Silver: Hungary
- Bronze: Spain
- United States
- Netherlands
- Australia
- Italy
- Japan
- China
- New Zealand
- Great Britain
- France
- Croatia
- Argentina
- South Africa
- Singapore
