May 3, 2011
NCAA Tournament Central
STANFORD, Calif. - Stanford women's water polo was named the top seed at the 2011 National Collegiate Championship, set for May 13-15 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The Cardinal (25-1) earned one of three at-large bids into the draw and will open tournament play at 3 p.m. PT Friday, May 13 at Canham Natatorium on the campus of the University of Michigan. Stanford will take on the No. 8 seed in the draw, which will be the winner of a May 7 play-in game between MAAC champion Iona and SCIAC champion Redlands.
The tournament will continue Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, may 15, as each of the eight teams are guaranteed to play three games.
Stanford finished third at this past weekend's MPSF Championship, suffering its first loss of the season in Saturday's semifinal against UCLA before rebounding to rout host San Jose State, 15-5, Sunday afternoon.
Also making the field from the MPSF were the second, third and fourth seeds California, UCLA and USC, respectively.
The Big West Conference, which for the first time received an automatic bid this season, will be represented by No. 5 seed UC Irvine. Indiana, champion of the CWPA, received the No. 6 seed while WWPA champion UC San Diego will be the seventh seed.
The bid continues Stanford's status as the only collegiate women's water polo program to qualify for every single tournament since the NCAA first sponsored a women's water polo championship in 2001. This year will mark the 11th straight tournament appearance for the Cardinal. The Cardinal captured its sole title in 2002.
Stanford is led in the pool by the scoring of Annika Dries (58 goals), Melissa Seidemann (44) and Alyssa Lo (38). Overall, the Cardinal boasts five players that have scored at least 30 goals so far in 2011. Defensively, the goalkeeping tandem of senior Amber Oland (7.71 saves per game, 4.98 GAA) and sophomore Kate Baldoni (7.31 saves per game, 3.86 GAA) have paced the Cardinal to a league-best team defensive mark of just 4.73 goals allowed per game.