Maggie Steffens’ greatness just below surface

LONDON — From the stands in Beijing, Maggie Steffens so utterly immersed herself in the water polo below that she qualified as a medal-for-participation type. She screamed. She leaped to her feet with such zeal that she felt lightheaded.

Four years later, after a 10-goals-in-three-games blastoff to her Olympics career, the reflex explanation is that Steffens acts as if she’s been here before. But because she already acted like that four years ago, reality is the easy part.

“I almost feel a little more relaxed than I did when I was cheering,” said Steffens, now 19, after her three-goal effort powered a 7-6 comeback win Friday over China at the Water Polo Arena. “It’s always harder for people to watch than play, in a way.”

PHOTOS: London Olympics, Day 7

Evidently. U.S. women’s water polo has its bedrock for the near and distant future in a 5-foot-8 defender from Danville, Calif., who should be contemplating her sophomore year at Stanford — except she put off college for the medal quest that begins in earnest Sunday, in the quarterfinals against Italy.

Her Olympic debut featured a record seven goals, and her three goals plus an assist against China turned a 3-1 deficit into a 5-3 lead Friday. It was scrap befitting the team’s youngest member and a teenager from a family of 40-plus cousins who had water polo in the blood and, sometimes, nearly put blood in the water.

“Are you kidding? She never got any mercy,” said Jessica Steffens, Maggie’s older sister and fellow U.S. teammate. “Granted, half the time we didn’t even let her fight with us because she was just too small. But that never stopped her.”

Very little has in this precocious stretch.

“I’ve played with Maggie since we were both 14 and 15, and she’s been an absolute baller since she’s been that age,” center forward Annika Dries said. “If anything, she’s fulfilling her potential. It’s not a surprise.”

The performance suggests maturity, as does her handling of it. Seven goals? Steffens lamented her sloppy defense and set about fixing that in practice.

“It kind of sounds weird, but I’m not really thinking about my goals,” Steffens said. “We want to win every game, we need to get to the next game and get better each day.”

College, at last, arrives in September. That much she’s not imagining just yet.

“That’s a long way away in my mind,” Steffens said. “I got three more games to play.”

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