Finally the First MeetingFinally the First Meeting
Women's Water Polo

Finally the First Meeting

What's Ahead

No. 3 Stanford (19-3, 4-1 MPSF) wraps up its regular season when it plays No. 2 UCLA (21-3, 4-1 MPSF) for the first time in 2016 on Saturday, April 23 at 11:30 a.m. Greg Mescall and Adam Krikorian will handle the call from Westwood on Pac-12 Bay Area.

Looking Back

Stanford pulled to within two of top-ranked USC midway through the third quarter, but the Trojans scored four of the game’s final five goals to beat the Cardinal at Avery Aquatic Center on April 16, 8-3.

The loss, which snapped Stanford’s eight-game win streak, was also the Cardinal’s first regular-season league defeat since 2009. Stanford had won a conference-record 43 consecutive MPSF contests.

The result was Stanford's largest margin of defeat in any game since that last MPSF setback, which came by an 11-6 score at USC on April 18, 2009.

Against UCLA

Stanford is 39-31 all-time against the Bruins. In the teams’ last meeting, Kiley Neushul led Stanford to the program’s fourth national championship in the past five seasons with a 7-6 victory at Avery Aquatic Center on May 10, 2015. The senior capped her collegiate career by converting a game-winning penalty shot with 11 seconds remaining to send the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

Seeing The Stats

Stanford is second in the MPSF in goals per game (12.41), trailing USC (12.65), but ahead of UCLA (12.21), and third in goals allowed per game (5.36) behind USC (4.25) and UCLA (5.17). Individually, Jamie Neushul leads the Cardinal and is fourth in the conference in goals per game (1.77). Kat Klass is sixth (1.68) and tops among the league’s freshmen, Anna Yelizarova is tied for 15th (1.47), Gurpreet Sohi is 18th (1.41) and Dani Jackovich is 24th (1.14). Julia Hermann’s 5.56 goals against average is sixth in the conference and her 8.49 saves per game are sixth.

Qualified

The USA Water Polo Women’s National Team punched its ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games behind the play of four Cardinal at the recently concluded Olympic Qualification Tournament in Gouda, Netherlands. Needing just a top-four finish to earn a berth in Rio, Stanford’s Makenzie Fischer, Kiley Neushul, Melissa Seidemann and Maggie Steffens led the United States to an undefeated 8-0 record at the event. Team USA outscored its opponents by a combined score of 123-35 and the Cardinal quartet accounted for nearly 50 percent of that scoring (57 combined goals).

Fischer scored multiple times in each of the eight games, including four hat tricks, and totaled 22 goals. Neushul had 17 and scored three or more three times, topping out with five in a 15-7 win over Greece on March 24. Steffens, the MVP of the 2012 Olympics, scored 13 and Seidemann, who won gold with Steffens at the 2012 Games in London, rattled the cage five times.

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.

We got our rings and said goodbye to our 2015 team last night. Feeling lucky to have been a part of such an amazing group and looking forward to making new memories this upcoming season! Stanford Stanford Stanford! 🌲🌲❤️❤️

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.

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.

In The Polls

Stanford remained third in the national rankings (92 points), behind No. 1 USC (100 points) and No. 2 UCLA (96 points) in this week’s CWPA Women’s Varsity Top 20 Poll. Arizona State (84 points) and Michigan (82 points) round out the top five.