What's Ahead
No. 3 Stanford (12-2) opens up conference action when it travels to No. 10 San Jose State on Saturday, March 5. The ball drops against the Spartans at 1 p.m.
Looking Back
The Cardinal finished third at the UC Irvine Invitational last weekend in Southern California. Stanford opened the tournament with Saturday wins over No. 14 Loyola Marymount (13-5) and No. 5 UC Davis (12-5). In a semifinal on Sunday, the Cardinal led No. 1 USC 5-2 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Trojans scored five times in the final frame, including with five seconds left, to beat Stanford 7-6. The Cardinal rebounded later in the day to beat No. 6 Hawaii, 13-7.
MPSF Pick
Stanford collected 32 points and three first-place votes to top the 2016 MPSF Women’s Water Polo Coaches’ Poll, which was released by the conference on Jan. 7. USC was tabbed second with 31 points and three first-place votes while UCLA was third with 29 points and one first-place vote. California, Arizona State, San Jose State and CSU Bakersfield rounded out the preseason picks. The Cardinal has not lost an MPSF game since 2009, a stretch of 39 straight regular season conference outings. Its last league loss came at USC on April 18, 2009 (11-6).
Seeing The Stats
Stanford finds itself second in the MPSF in goals per game (12.79), trailing USC (13.64) but ahead of UCLA (10.23), and third in goals allowed per game (5.50) behind USC (4.91) and Cal (5.06). Individually, Jamie Neushul leads the Cardinal and is fifth in the conference in goals per game (1.86). Kat Klass is tied for eighth (1.64), Anna Yelizarova is 13th (1.57), Gurpreet Sohi is 15th (1.43) and Dani Jackovich is 25th (1.07). Julia Hermann’s 5.84 goals against average is sixth in the conference and her 8.08 saves per game are seventh.
Rewind To 2015
The Cardinal won 25 games for the ninth consecutive season in 2015 and made history by becoming the first host institution to win the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championship. The national crown was the fifth in program history and the Cardinal’s fourth in the past five seasons.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Water Polo (@stanfordwwaterpolo) on Nov 15, 2015 at 10:30am PST
World University Games
Stanford had an early start to building a cohesive unit heading into this season. Over the summer, the Cardinal represented the United States at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea. After going 1-2-1 in pool play, the U.S. went 2-1 in its final three games to come in fifth out of the 10-team field. Jamie Neushul led the U.S. at the World University Games in goals, scoring 18 (2.6 per game) and freshman Kat Klass joined her in double figures rattling the cage 11 times (1.6 per game). Defensively, Raney contributed five field blocks in South Korea, while Cassidy Papa and Shannon Cleary added four each. Gabby Stone and Jamie Neushul had nine steals apiece, Dani Jackovich added seven and Kat Klass five.
Gyeongbok Palace, built in 1395. Final adventure of the trip. #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/ieQtg22GDB
— Stanford Water Polo (@Stanfordh2opolo) July 15, 2015
Junior Worlds
Stanford All-Americans Jamie Neushul and Jordan Raney helped the United States repeat as FINA Junior World Champions with an undefeated run to the title in Volos, Greece in August. Team USA outscored its opponents 106 to 46 over the six games, which were capped with a 13-10 victory over Spain in the championship. Neushul, who served as captain for the United States, scored 14 goals, including three hat tricks, while Raney, the reigning MPSF Newcomer of the Year, added six.
Congrats Jordan & @Jneushul8 on bringing home the Gold. #Volos2015. Jr Worlds. pic.twitter.com/PF8Ajkvjoe
— Stanford Water Polo (@Stanfordh2opolo) August 23, 2015
In The Polls
Stanford remained fourth in the national rankings (88 points), behind No. 1 USC (100 points), No. 2 UCLA (96 points) and No. 3 Cal (92 points) in this week’s CWPA Women’s Varsity Top 20 Poll. UC Davis (80 points) rounds out the top five.