University Southern California Trojans
Flora Bolonyai Helps Hungary To Bronze
February 01, 2012 | Women's Water Polo
Feb. 1, 2012
USC's sophomore goalie Flora Bolonyai brings back some hardware from overseas as she now jumps into collegiate waters with her Women of Troy. As the linchpin of the Hungarian National Team's defense, Bolonyai helped her team to a bronze medal at the European Championships last week in the Netherlands. In doing so, Hungary moves on to fight for a spot in the London Olympic Games with a spot at April's Olympic Qualification Tournament.
Bolonyai started her decorated debut with Hungary's Senior National Team earlier in the year as she picked up honors as the Best Goalie of the Tournament at the Thetis Cup before moving into this latest major competition with Hungary at the European Championships. With Bolonyai backing up her team, Hungary not only made its move to qualify for the Olympic Qualification Tournament by reached the Euro semifinals, it capped off the impressive run with one last strong statement with a 9-8 win over Russia in the bronze-medal game. Russia had beaten Hungary during group play of the tournament, but Hungary turned the tide with payback in the bronze-medal match. There, Bolonyai went big and gave her team a lift in blocking a 5-meter penalty shot early in the game. That shot happened to come from the hands of another Trojan -- Sofia Konoukh -- a USC grad who led her Russian team to Olympic bronze back in 2000.
Bolonyai is in her sophomore season at USC after picking up All-American honors in her first year at Troy. Her fellow USC sophomore Jennifer Stiefel also was in action at the European Championships as a member of the German National Team. Stiefel scored a goal for Germany in a group play matchup with Spain.
Bolonyai, Stiefel and the Women of Troy are set to open up the collegiate season this weekend when USC heads to the Stanford Invitational for action on Saturday and Sunday at Stanford's Avery Aquatic Center.
