MPSF's Open With SpartansMPSF's Open With Spartans
Carl Solder
Women's Water Polo

MPSF's Open With Spartans

What's Ahead

No. 3 Stanford (19-4, 4-2 MPSF) enters postseason play when it begins its MPSF Tournament in Bakersfield against No. 13 San Jose State (17-13, 1-5 MPSF) on Friday, April 29 at 12:45 p.m. The winner will advance to a Saturday semifinal at 12:45 p.m. against the winner of No. 2 UCLA (22-3, 5-1 MPSF) and No. 25 CSU Bakersfield (13-19, 0-6 MPSF).

Games from the John S. Hillman Memorial Aquatic Center will be streamed live on the Roadrunner Sports Network. Live stats will also be available via The FOSH.

MPSF Tournament

Stanford has won five conference tournament titles in program history (2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2014) and appeared in 12 championship games. The program is 46-16 (.742) all-time at the MPSF Tournament since 1997. Results from 1996 are not available.

As the No. 1 seed last season, the Cardinal received a bye into the semifinals and was nipped by Cal, 8-7, on April 25. Stanford bounced back to beat USC a day later, 9-6, and claim third place at the tournament in Tempe, Ariz.

This is the first season since 2009 that Stanford is not the top seed at the league tournament. The Cardinal had won 43 consecutive regular season MPSF games until it dropped contests to USC and UCLA over the past two weekends.

An MPSF Tournament title isn’t an indicator of NCAA success, at least for the Cardinal. Despite winning four of the past five national championships, 2014 was the only season in which Stanford won both the league crown and the national one. It finished second in the 2012 MPSF Tournament and third place in both 2011 and 2015 before going on to win NCAA Championships.

Looking Back

Stanford used a 5-1 run over the second and third quarters to storm back from an early three-goal deficit, but UCLA’s Devin Grab scored her fourth of the afternoon on a penalty early in sudden death overtime to help the No. 2 Bruins escape with a 9-8 victory over the No. 3 Cardinal last Saturday in Westwood.

Jamie Neushul scored four goals for the third time this season and was backed up with multi-goal efforts from Dani Jackovich and Kat Klass.

Against San Jose State

This will be the fourth meeting of the season between the Cardinal and Spartans. Stanford won the previous three by a combined score of 44-16.

The Cardinal won in San Jose on Jan. 17, 10-5, at the LouStrong Memorial behind a Jamie Neushul hat trick. At the Stanford Invitational on Feb. 6, Shannon Cleary, Kat Klass, Anna Yelizarova and Neushul each scored three times and Julia Hermann made a career-high 17 saves to lead the Cardinal to a 17-8 victory.

In the teams’ conference matchup, Klass scored a season-high five times, Jackovich and Neushul each had hat tricks and Hermann made 10 saves in a 17-3 win.

Strong Start

Freshman Kat Klass collected her fourth MPSF/Kap7 Newcomer of the Week award on Tuesday after scoring twice at UCLA.

With 39 this season and a 1.70 average, she continues to lead MPSF first-year players in goals per game. Her total is the most for a Stanford freshman since 2013. Klass has scored in a team-high 19 games, including seven straight, and has put home at least two on 10 occasions.

My Stanford Story

"It's hard not to fall in love with this place." Stanford experiences have shaped Gurpreet Sohi's future.

Seeing The Stats

Stanford is second in the MPSF in goals per game (12.22), trailing USC (12.57), but ahead of UCLA (12.08), and third in goals allowed per game (5.52) behind USC (4.33) and UCLA (5.28). Individually, Jamie Neushul leads the Cardinal and is fourth in the conference in goals per game (1.87). Kat Klass is sixth (1.70) and tops among the league’s freshmen, Anna Yelizarova is 16th (1.47), Gurpreet Sohi is 19th (1.35) and Dani Jackovich is 22nd (1.17). Julia Hermann’s 5.67 goals against average is tied for sixth in the conference and her 8.43 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 (88 points) and Michigan (82 points) round out the top five.