STANFORD, Calif. – The USA Women’s Senior National Team will have a decidedly Stanford flavor when the ball drops at the FINA World League Super Final in Shanghai, China on Tuesday with five members of the 13-woman roster possessing Stanford ties.
Ashley Grossman and Kiley Neushul, who recently concluded their Stanford careers with a third national championship last month, are joined on Team USA by junior and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Maggie Steffens, 2013 graduate and fellow 2012 Olympic gold medalist Melissa Seidemann and prep standout Makenzie Fischer, who signed her National Letter of Intent with the Cardinal in mid-November.
The United States’ tournament begins at 1:20 a.m. PT on Tuesday, June 9 with Brazil. Meetings with Canada (2:40 a.m. PT) and the Netherlands (12:00 a.m. PT) follow on Wedneday and Thursday to wrap up Group B play. The schedule for the final three days of competition will be determined by the results of the first three days.
The group recently claimed gold at the 2015 Kunshan Cup in China, the United States’ second major championship of 2015. Fischer, Seidemann and incoming freshman Madison Berggren were on the roster when the U.S. won gold at the FINA Intercontinental Tournament in Auckland, New Zealand in early May.
In Kunshan last week, Team USA went a perfect 4-0 with wins over the Netherlands (10-3) and China (13-7) to open the event and victories over Canada (10-8) and the Netherlands again (18-9) in the semifinals and finals to nab the title. Steffens and Fischer each posted hat tricks in the championship while Grossman and Neushul added multi-goal efforts and Seidemann scored one of her own.
Steffens scored nine times in the four games, highlighted by a four-goal effort in a 13-7 victory over China on June 4. Kiley Neushul scored three of her eight goals on the week in the same game. Fischer scored six total goals in Kunshan and put home at least one in each match. Grossman and Seidemann contributed three each of Team USA’s 51 goals at the event.
While just a few with Stanford ties are representing their country in China, the entire current Cardinal squad will do so at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea this July. On May 1, Stanford officials announced that the university’s women’s water polo program will represent the United States at the biennial event, which incorporates both educational and cultural aspects into 12 days of sports competitions and features more than 9,000 student-athletes and officials from over 170 countries.