One Short in Frantic FinalOne Short in Frantic Final
Women's Water Polo

One Short in Frantic Final

LOS ANGELES – Kat Klass scored twice for Stanford in a frenetic final 52 seconds, but the Cardinal was denied a third consecutive national championship when Stephania Haralabidis scored for USC with six seconds left to lift the Trojans to an 8-7 victory in Sunday’s NCAA title game.

Down two with 52 on the clock after a Brianna Daboub goal, Stanford head coach John Tanner called timeout and drew up a quick strike for the Cardinal (23-6). Gurpreet Sohi received a long pass from goalkeeper Julia Hermann and left it in the middle for a driving Klass. The freshman fired it home in a play that took five seconds from start to finish and Stanford had life.

“Honestly, at that point, your instinct just kicks in,” Sohi said of her assist. “I wasn’t thinking about a lot. I got a great pass from our goalie on my right hand, I looked at the cage and then at Kat [Klass] and I knew what to do.”

Up 7-6, USC (26-0) went inside to two meters, but Stanford’s defense swarmed and netted the takeaway. The Cardinal called its final 30-second timeout with 16 seconds remaining. Klass was fouled outside five meters, stepped back to seven and skipped her throw past USC’s Amanda Longan to even the score, 7-7, with just 11 seconds to go.

“I loved the way our team performed and I loved how we kept fighting back,” Tanner said. “Their spirit was unreal. Just by force of will, to score those last two goals. Both of those plays have not always gone smoothly, but when we most needed them they were flawless. That speaks volumes to the character of this team and to their resilience.”

USC took possession and Haralabidis rifled home the winner from the right side, 10-meters out. The junior scored five of the Trojans’ eight goals and was named the tournament’s MVP. She was joined on the All-NCAA Tournament first team by Stanford’s Jamie Neushul and Julia Hermann, while Jordan Raney landed on the second team.

Stanford scored once in each of the first, second and third quarters, but unleashed four in the fourth as it fought for what would have been its third straight national title and fifth in the last six years. Down 5-3 entering the final frame, Madison Berggren’s lob to the far post with 5:06 left pulled the Cardinal within one.

Brigitta Games was successful from in close on USC’s next possession to give the Trojans some slight breathing room, but Sohi drew an exclusion at 3:35 and Raney converted 15 seconds later when she inched in from the left and went bar down to make the score 6-5 USC. The teams would trade stops over the next 2:30 until the frantic final minute.

Berggren netted her first of the day early in the third when she took a pass from Neushul and fired it to the near post to tie things up, 3-3. Sophomore Shannon Cleary scored first for Stanford at 5:19 in the opening quarter and her classmate Katie Dudley tallied the Cardinal’s second-quarter score in the 6-on-5 with 12 seconds left in the period.

Hermann made 11 saves and averaged more than 10 in the weekend’s three games en route to being voted the best goalkeeper at the event. With records that date back to 2001, her 244 saves in 2016 are the most for Stanford in the last 15 years.

Stanford, which has never finished lower than third at the national championship tournament and is the only team to appear in all 16 since its inception in 2001, is now 33-11 all-time in NCAA postseason play.

No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 1 USC
May 15, 2016 • Los Angeles, Calif.
USC 1 – 2 – 2– 3 = 8
STAN 1 – 1 – 1 – 4 = 7
 
USC Goals: Stephania Haralabidis 5, Brigitta Games 2, Brianna Daboub
USC Saves: Amanda Longan 9
 
Stanford Goals: Madison Berggren 2, Kat Klass 2, Shannon Cleary, Katie Dudley, Jordan Raney
Stanford Saves: Julia Hermann 11