TEMPE, Ariz. – Anna Yelizarova made her return to the Cardinal lineup and led a trio with multi-goal games as the No. 2 Stanford women’s water polo team headed to the desert and came away with a 10-4 win over No. 8 Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz. on Saturday afternoon.
The result moved Stanford’s record to 16-1 overall and 2-0 in MPSF action. The Cardinal has won five straight after suffering its first and only loss of the season on Feb. 22. The victory was also Stanford’s 35th straight in league regular-season games.
Yelizarova scored twice along with Kiley Neushul and Gurpreet Sohi. Neushul’s two scores inched her closer to the 200-goal plateau. The senior now has 196 in her career.
Yelizarova’s two goals also give her 99 in her career and the junior computer science major will soon be Stanford’s fourth active 100-goal scorer along with Neushul, Ashley Grossman and Maggie Steffens. Yelizarova had been out with an injury since early February and last scored when she posted a hat trick in the championship match of the Stanford Invite against UCLA on the first of that month.
Both of her goals came to start the second quarter for a Cardinal squad which led 2-1 after the first thanks to early marks from Sohi (6:57) and Jamie Neushul (5:00). Up 4-1 in the second, Maggie Steffens put Stanford on top 5-1 with her first at 3:47. Sohi’s second goal with 2:31 left until the break was sandwiched by a pair of Arizona State scores and the Cardinal owned a 6-3 edge at halftime.
The game’s scoring was concluded in a third quarter in which Stanford held a 4-1 advantage. Ashley Grossman rattled the cage at 5:31 and, following a successful ASU penalty with 5:02 on the clock, the Cardinal put home the final three of the afternoon.
Freshman Jordan Raney fired in her 14th of the season at 3:09 before Kiley Neushul tallied career goals No. 195 (1:59) and 196 (0:57).
Stanford returns home to play its final non-conference foe of 2015 in the form of No. 11 UC Davis on Sunday at 1 p.m.
No. 2 Stanford at No. 8 Arizona State
March 28, 2015 • Tempe, Ariz.
ASU 1 – 2 – 1 – 0 = 4
STAN 2 – 4 – 4– 0 = 10
Arizona State Goals: Petra Pardi 2, Alkistis Benekou, Abbey Kerth
Arizona State Saves: E.B. Keeve 10, Mia Rycraw 4
Stanford Goals: Kiley Neushul 2, Gurpreet Sohi 2, Anna Yelizarova 2, Ashley Grossman, Jamie Neushul, Jordan Raney, Maggie Steffens
Stanford Saves: Gabby Stone 4