LOS ANGELES – Makenzie Fischer and Jordan Raney each scored twice and No. 2 Stanford coupled timely scores with stout defense to beat No. 3 USC 6-5 in an MPSF Tournament semifinal on Saturday.
Stanford (20-2), which has won five MPSF championships but just one the past 10 years (2014), awaits the winner of No. 1 UCLA (20-1) and No. 5 California (15-7) in tomorrow's final at 2:30 p.m.
The Cardinal was up two for most of the afternoon until USC (27-3) scored three times in the first four minutes of the third quarter to level things 4-4. The Trojans went to Brigitta Games for a pair of goals at two meters and got another from Kelsey McIntosh after Games was swarmed inside.
Raney answered the first Games goal at 6:44 when Maggie Steffens found her in space and the junior rose, fired and rattled the cage to make it 4-2. Following two more scores from Games and McIntosh, Fischer fired in a man-up score (3:50) after Denise Mammolito was excluded for the Trojans to put Stanford ahead for the final time.
Late in the third, USC had one of its five 6-on-5 chances, but had its entry pass picked off by Shannon Cleary. The Trojans went just 1-of-5 in power play situations.
Midway through the fourth, Raney drew a penalty on USC's Stephania Harlabidis, which Fischer converted to make it 6-4. The script was flipped at 2:52 when Games made an inside move and drew a penalty, which Haralabidis scored.
USC had possession with under a minute left and was looking for the equalizer, but Stanford's pressure defense forced a shot clock violation with 51 seconds remaining. The Cardinal's shot attempt with less than 30 seconds left was tipped by Trojan keeper Amanda Longan and Stanford was able to retain control and run out the clock.
Stanford was up 3-1 after one period and scored on its first possession of the game when Steffens hit Kat Klass at the far post and Klass redirected the service to the back of the cage (7:00). Neither team would score again from three minutes until Ioanna Haralabidis slipped one past Gabby Stone off the feed from Maud Megens (4:01).
Stanford earned its first 6-on-5 of the day the next time down the pool and Raney would score at 3:17. At 1:42, Stone made one of her four saves and hit a streaking Fischer down the right side with a pinpoint pass. Fischer found Maggie Steffens at the far post and the Olympic connection netted the Cardinal a 3-1 lead.
The win was the 20th of the season for Stanford, which has won at least that many games for 13 consecutive seasons.
No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 3 USC
April 29, 2017 • Los Angeles, Calif.
USC 1 – 0 – 3 – 1 = 5
STAN 3 – 0 – 2 – 1 = 6
Stanford Goals: Makenzie Fischer 2, Jordan Raney 2, Kat Klass, Maggie Steffens
Stanford Saves: Gabby Stone 4
USC Goals: Brigitta Games 2, Ioanna Harlabidis, Stephania Haralabidis, Kelsey McIntosh
USC Saves: Amanda Longan 10
