March 25, 2009
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The top-ranked women's water polo team reached the halfway point of its four-game, five-day road trip to Southern California on a victorious note, capturing an 11-6 decision against host and fifth-ranked San Diego State Wednesday. The victory was the 15th in a row for the Cardinal (18-1, 4-0 MPSF), which stayed perfect in MPSF play as the Aztecs fell to 20-6 overall and 0-4 in MPSF play.
Melissa Seidemann scored four goals to lead the Cardinal (18-1, 4-0 MPSF) in the victory, while Lauren Silver also posted a hat trick with three goals. Koree Blyleven, Kira Hillman, Kelsey Holshouser and Alex Koran each added a goal to complete the scoring for Stanford.
Sophomore Amber Oland took over goalkeeping duty in the cage Wednesday, and responded by stopping nine shots in a strong defensive effort.
The contest started off close, with the Cardinal holding a slim 3-2 lead after the opening eight minutes of play. Yet the Stanford defense would help get the team some breathing room in the second period, holding the Aztecs scoreless as the Cardinal offense put a pair in the cage to increase the lead to three at 5-2.
Each team would score twice in the third period, but the Aztecs would strike first in the fourth to cut the Cardinal lead to two at 7-5 with 6:52 remaining in the contest.
Stanford would keep its composure, though, reeling off three straight goals to take control of the game with a 10-5 lead. San Diego State would score once more with 1:24 to play, but Stanford would get on the board once more with 53 seconds remaining for the 11-6 win.
The Cardinal enjoyed success on special teams Wednesday, going 3-for-4 on its 6-on-5 situations, while the defense held the Aztecs to just a 1-for-8 performance on the power play, although SDSU did manage to score on a 6-on-4.
Stanford returns to action for the third consecutive day Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m., heading into Orange County to visit UC Irvine.
Stanford - 3 2 2 4 = 11
SDSU - 2 0 2 2 = 6
Stanford Goal Scorers: Seidemann 4, Silver 3, Blyleven, Hillman, Holshouser, Koran
SDSU Goal Scorers: Gonzales 2, Schuster 2, de Jonckheere, Greenwood
Goalie Saves: Oland 9 (S); Campoli 16