April 9, 1999
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The second-ranked Stanford women's water polo team opened the MPSF Tournament with a pair of wins Friday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on the UCLA campus, beating No. 14 Pacific 10-2 and No. 5 UC Santa Barbara 8-1. The Cardinal (17-3 overall) is currently 2-0 in the round-robin tournament, which continues Saturday and Sunday.
Freshman Kate Pettit (Bainbridge Island, WA/Bainbridge) scored three goals in the opener and junior Elissa Keszler (Lodi, CA/Tokay) added a pair. Stanford started off slowly against the Tigers, who finished 10th of 10 teams during regular-season play, but turned it on in the second half. After leading only 2-1 after one quarter, the Cardinal out-scored Pacific 3-0 over the next two periods, then threw in five goals in the fourth. Led by senior goalie Heather Crary (Atherton, CA/Menlo School), the Cardinal held an opponent to two goals or fewer for the fifth time in the last eight games.
Friday afternoon, the Cardinal put on a strong performance against the fifth-ranked Gauchos. The two teams met only 10 days earlier at Stanford, with the Cardinal struggling to a 7-5 win, but this game was not as close. Stanford, which tied for the MPSF regular-season title with USC (but is seeded second in this tournament), ran its counter-attack to perfection against UCSB, which finished sixth in regular-season MPSF play. Crary threw an outlet pass to sophomore Anne-Marie Keenan (Woodside, CA/Menlo School) who then flipped the ball to Keszler for the Cardinal's first goal. After a Gaucho goal, freshman Margie Dingeldein (Merced, CA/Merced) scored from outside, and Stanford never looked back. Dingeldein finished with three goals, Keszler had two and Keenan had one tally and three assists. Crary played three strong quarters in goal and threw passes directly leading to two goals, and sophomore Alli Henry (Palos Verdes, CA/Chadwick School) came in for the fourth quarter and immediately made a very tough save.
Saturday Stanford will face No. 8 San Diego State at 12:55 p.m. and No. 3 California at 5:15 p.m.
GAME 1
1 2 3 4 T #14 Pacific 1 0 0 1 - 2 #2 Stanford 2 1 2 5 - 10Pacific - Molly Smith 2
Stanford - Kate Pettit 3, Elissa Keszler 2, Dani Bell, Margie Dingeldein, Anne-Marie Keenan, Ali Riddell, Kelly Shouey
Records - Pacific 6-15, Stanford 16-3
GAME 2
1 2 3 4 T #5 UC Santa Barbara 1 0 0 0 - 1 #2 Stanford 3 2 2 1 - 8
UC Santa Barbara - Nicole Comacho
Stanford - Margie Dingeldein 3, Elissa Keszler 2, Dani Bell, Hilary
Gallogly, Anne-Marie Keenan
Records - UC Santa Barbara 9-12, Stanford 17-3