LOS ANGELES – Jamie Neushul scored three goals, Julia Hermann made eight saves and No. 2 Stanford never trailed on Saturday in beating No. 3 UCLA, 7-4, to advance to the NCAA title game for the seventh consecutive season. The Cardinal will go for its third straight national championship and fifth in the past six years when it takes on No. 1 USC tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m.
“I was pleased with our energy coming out to start the game [because] both times we have played UCLA this year we have gotten into a hole,” Dunlevie Family Director of Women's Water Polo John Tanner said. “Today, it was a really good start and then we got those great finishes that we hadn’t gotten in the past. Julia (Hermann) was sensational, just a terrific game and Jamie (Neushul) stabilized things throughout. I just thought it was a very poised performance in a really challenging environment.”
Two weeks after limiting UCLA (25-5) to a season-low three goals in the semifinals of the MPSF Tournament, Stanford’s defense was stout yet again. The Bruins unleashed 28 shots, four found the back of the cage, Hermann stopped eight and the Cardinal (23-5) blocked another four before they reached the team’s All-MPSF goalkeeper.
Stanford’s gritty effort was paced on the offensive end by its junior All-American. Neushul was successful on three of her four shots to tally her team-leading 11th hat trick of the season.
With the score knotted 1-1 after one, Neushul notched her first when she swam to five meters and unleased a cross-cage shot that beat Alex Musselman to the far post early in the second quarter (6:51). She again went far post on a power play with 6:07 on the clock in the third quarter to extend Stanford’s lead, 5-3, and rounded out her evening with a lob at 3:47 in the fourth for Stanford’s seventh and final score.
“I think it is finding your opportunities, capitalizing on them and realizing when it is a good time to take a shot and when it is not,” Neushul said. “It is unbelievable how much movement was happening from my teammates. It’s really easy to be in that position when everyone else is putting you in it and knowing that everyone has your back.”
The teams each scored once in the opening eight minutes, with Stanford’s coming from its biomechanical engineering two-meter Dani Jackovich. Jackovich sprinted ahead and muscled it in with a defender draped all over her back less than a minute into the action.
After trading the game’s first four scores, Stanford rallied for two straight to close the first half. With 2:28 on the clock a contra foul on the perimeter early in a Bruin possession turned it back over to the Cardinal. Gurpreet Sohi retrieved the ball in front of UCLA’s cage, flipped it Shannon Cleary who fed it right back to Sohi for the goal. Kat Klass scored in the 6-on-5 with 31 seconds intermission to put Stanford up 4-2 at the half.
UCLA scored twice in the third, but the Bruins came up empty in the fourth while Stanford pulled away with a pair of goals. Hermann came up with save after save, and set the tone for the fourth-quarter shutout when she stoned Ashley Zwirner from point-blank range. The Cardinal capitalized and Madison Berggren lobbed it in to the far post from two meters with 5:28 to go.
Following Neushul’s third to give Stanford its largest lead, 7-4, Shannon Cleary blocked an attempt by Charlotte Pratt and at 1:33, UCLA’s ninth man-up opportunity was for naught as Hermann shut down Zwirner at the near post.
“It’s unbelievable knowing that you have such a wall behind you and someone that has a huge heart,” Neushul said of Hermann. “If they score a goal, it is not going to phase her. Having that stability from your goalie, your last line of defense, echoes throughout the team.”
Stanford, which has advanced to every NCAA title game since 2010, will be in a familiar position on Sunday as it tries to cap off its 2016 season with the program’s sixth national title. The Trojans (25-0) have taken all three meetings with the Cardinal this year, 7-6 at the UC Irvine Invitational in February, 8-3 in MPSF play in April and 8-5 in the MPSF Tournament final on May 1.
No. 2 Stanford at No. 3 UCLA
May 14, 2016 • Los Angeles, Calif.
UCLA 1 – 1 – 2– 0 = 4
STAN 1 – 3 – 1 – 2 = 7
UCLA Goals: Mackenzie Barr 2, Devin Grab, Alexa Tielmann
UCLA Saves: Alex Musselman 4
Stanford Goals: Jamie Neushul 3, Madison Berggren, Dani Jackovich, Kat Klass, Gurpreet Sohi
Stanford Saves: Julia Hermann 8