April 29, 2006
Irvine, Calif. - No. 3 Stanford defeated No. 2 UCLA with a gutsy 5-4 win in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Semifinal on Saturday afternoon at Irvine's Anteater Aquatics Complex. Junior Katie Hansen (Coronado, CA) had a hat trick to help the Cardinal (21-4, 10-2 MPSF) advance to the MPSF Championship Final. They will face the 5th seed, 4th-ranked University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine at 2:45 PM on Sunday afternoon. UCLA (25-4, 11-1) will play in the third place game against crosstown rival No. 1 USC at 1:30 on Sunday.
The teams exchanged a few quiet possessions to open the match before UCLA got on the board first with a goal at the 3:45 mark. Stanford answered back with a couple goals in the next 75 seconds, giving Stanford a 2-1 edge that they took into the 2nd quarter.
The second frame turned into a defensive battle as the teams exchanged several possessions with neither able to reach the back of the net. Stanford would maintain its 2-1 lead heading into the half.
When the teams reconvened, Stanford made the first move by extending their lead to 3-1 at the 4:04 mark of the third quarter. The cushion would not last, as the Bruins offense quickly woke up and put 2 goals into the net within 40 seconds, tying the match at 3-3 with 2:21 to go in the period. The rest of the third quarter went by without any scores, and with the season series tied at 1-1 and the conference championship on the line, it was only appropriate that the Bruins and the Cardinal would head into the final frame locked up at 3-3.
In the fourth quarter, Stanford quickly reclaimed the lead with a goal just over a minute into play, and then extended that lead to 5-3 with a score at 3:45. The Bruins fought back with a goal at 1:50 to bring the score within 1, but a tough Cardinal defense kept UCLA from getting any closer and Stanford took the match, 5-4.
Besides Hansen's hat trick, freshman Lauren Silver (Long Beach, CA) and junior Alison Gregorka (Ann Arbor, MI) also put scores on the board for Stanford. For the season, Silver still holds off Hansen for the team lead in goals scored, 45-44. Junior goalkeeper Meridith McColl (Mission Viejo, CA) had 6 saves.
Stanford will take on the No. 4 Hawaii Rainbow Wahine on Sunday at 2:45 PM in the same pool for the MPSF Conference Championship. The Cardinal defeated Hawaii 12-6 in Hawaii during the regular season.
MPSF Championship Semifinal
No. 3 Stanford (21-4) 2012=5
No. 2 UCLA (25-4)1021=4
Stanford Goals: Hansen 3, Gregorka 1, Silver 1.
Stanford Saves: McColl 6.
UCLA Goals: Cahill 1, Ke. Rulon 1, K. Kunkel 1, Munro 1.
UCLA Saves: Feher 6.