In Search of SixIn Search of Six
Carl Solder
Women's Water Polo

In Search of Six

What's Ahead

The No. 2 Stanford women’s water polo team (21-5) goes in search of its sixth NCAA crown when it travels to Los Angeles for the National Collegiate Women’s Water Polo Championship Friday, May 13 - Sunday, May 15 at UCLA’s Spieker Aquatics Center.

The Cardinal begins with No. 7 UC Santa Barbara (18-12) at 1:45 p.m. on Friday with the winner advancing to play either No. 3 UCLA or No. 10 UC San Diego in the semifinals on Saturday, May 14 at 5:15 p.m. The championship is on Sunday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m. All games will be streamed via on ncaa.com/liveschedule with Greg Mescall handling the call.

NCAA History

Stanford has won five NCAA Championships (2002, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015) and four of the last five. The Cardinal has been runner-up an additional six times (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013) and is the only team to appear in all 16 NCAA Championships since its inception in 2001.

Stanford has never finished lower than third at the event while racking up a record of 31-10 and is 6-4 against the NCAA championship field this season (0-3 vs. USC, 1-1 vs. UCLA, 1-0 vs. Michigan, 1-0 vs. Arizona State, 1-0 vs. UC Santa Barbara, 1-0 vs. UC San Diego, 1-0 vs. San Diego State).

MPSF Tournament

Stanford earned an at-large berth into the field following its second-place finish at the MPSF Tournament in Bakersfield, Calif. 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.

Class of the Conference

Kat Klass was named MPSF Newcomer of the Year to headline Stanford’s six honorees when the conference announced its postseason awards. Jamie Neushul and Jordan Raney were named to the All-MPSF first team, Julia Hermann and Anna Yelizarova earned All-MPSF honorable mention nods and Klass was joined on the list of the best first-year players by fellow freshman Madison Berggren.

Klass is Stanford’s sixth MPSF Newcomer of the Year award winner, joining Jordan Raney (2015), Kiley Neushul (2012), Melissa Seidemann (2009), Amber Oland (2008) and Lauren Silver (2006).

Strong Start

The daughter of Cardinal men’s water polo All-American and 1986 NCAA Player of the Year Craig Klass, Stanford’s freshman is second on the team with 41 total goals, averaging 1.58 per game. Her total is the most for a Cardinal freshman since 2013. Klass, who collected four MPSF/Kap7 Newcomer of the Week honors during the year, has scored in a team-high 21 games and put home at least two on 10 occasions.

Stepping In

In her first season of extended action after missing all of last year due to injury, Julia Hermann received her first conference accolade in earning a spot on the All-MPSF honorable mention squad.

The redshirt sophomore human biology major and only goalkeeper on Stanford’s roster, who was named MPSF/Kap7 Player of the Week on February 23, is sixth in the league in saves per game (8.62) and seventh in goals against average (5.67). Her 213 total stops are third in the MPSF and the fourth-most for the Cardinal since 2001. Hermann had played 7.65 career quarters coming into this season.

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Seeing The Stats

Stanford finds itself second in the MPSF in goals per game (11.62), trailing USC (12.09) but ahead of UCLA (11.50), and fifth in goals allowed per game (5.54) behind USC (4.39), UCLA (5.21), Arizona State (5.46) and Cal (5.52). Individually, Jamie Neushul leads the Cardinal and is fourth in the conference in goals per game (1.77). Kat Klass is eighth (1.58), Anna Yelizarova is 15th (1.45), Gurpreet Sohi is 19th (1.35) and Dani Jackovich is tied for 24th (1.12). Julia Hermann’s 5.67 goals against average is seventh in the conference and her 8.62 saves per game are sixth.

Concluding A Career

Sunday’s game will be the final in the Stanford careers of seniors Rachel Johnson, Gurpreet Sohi and Anna Yelizarova. In their four years on The Farm, the trio has led Stanford to a 100-11 record and a pair of national championships.

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.

Qualified

Stanford will go in search of its third straight national championship without some key pieces from last season’s squad, including its three first team All-Americans from a season ago.

Graduated seniors Kiley Neushul, the 2015 Cutino Award winner, and Ashley Grossman are with the USA Senior Women’s National Team as it prepares for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. That duo is joined by ACWPC Player of the Year Maggie Steffens, who is taking a year off from Stanford to go in search of her second Olympic gold medal. Makenzie Fischer, a would-be freshman on The Farm, is deferring a year to join the Cardinal contingent on Team USA and senior goalkeeper Gabby Stone is also training with the United States.

The USA Water Polo Women’s National Team punched its ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games at the recently concluded Olympic Qualification Tournament in Gouda, Netherlands. Needing just a top-four finish to earn a berth in Rio, Fischer, Neushul, Melissa Seidemann and 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.