Mackenzie_Wiley_JPL_02042018_0017Mackenzie_Wiley_JPL_02042018_0017
John P. Lozano/Stanford Athletics
Women's Water Polo

Conference Clash

No. 1 Stanford (13-1, 0-1)
at No. 4 UCLA (21-3, 2-1)
Saturday, April 7 • 12 p.m.
Spieker Aquatics Center • Los Angeles, Calif.
Television Pac-12 Bay Area/Pac-12 Los Angeles
Statistics

WHAT'S AHEADNo. 1 Stanford (13-1, 0-1 MPSF) resumes conference action when its plays at No. 4 UCLA (21-3, 2-1 MPSF) on Saturday, April 7 at noon. Kevin Danna and Chris Dorst have the call on Pac-12 Bay Area and Pac-12 Los Angeles.

WHAT JUST HAPPENEDFollowing a two-week break for final exams, Stanford returned to action with its first two true road games of the season at No. 7 UC Irvine on March 26 and at No. 17 UC Santa Barbara on March 28. Makenzie Fischer had a hand in all eight Cardinal goals of an 8-3 victory in Irvine, scoring five and assisting on the other three to go with a game-high three steals. Five Cardinal had multi-goal efforts and Stanford scored the game's final 10 goals to win at Santa Barbara 17-2.

AGAINST UCLAStanford, which beat the Bruins 8-7 to win last year's national championship, is 47-31 all-time against UCLA (records since 1997) and is 5-5 in its last 10 games against the Bruins in Westwood. Earlier this season, Stanford beat UCLA 10-3 in the semifinals of the Barbara Kalbus Invitational in Irvine on Feb. 24, its largest margin of victory in the series since an 8-1 win on April 6, 2013. The Cardinal's defense held UCLA without a goal on any of the Bruins' seven power play opportunities.

MPSF PLAYER OF THE WEEKMakenzie Fischer accounted for 40 percent of Stanford's scoring offense in its two wins at UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara, scoring five goals in each victory. She started by playing a role in all eight Cardinal goals at Irvine last Monday, scoring five and assisting on the other three in additional to collecting a game-high three steals. Against Santa Barbara on Wednesday, Fischer had a three-minute stretch across the third and fourth quarters where she scored three goals and assisted on another as part of a 10-goal Cardinal run. She also had two steals and two field blocks against the Gauchos. Fischer's performances tied her career high in goals scored and were the fourth and fifth times she's reached the mark. After posting a 5.00 goals per game average in the two wins, Fischer upped her season average to a team-leading 2.36 goals per game, which is second in the MPSF.

CENTURY MARKKat Klass collected her 14th career hat trick last time out at UC Santa Barbara. The Cardinal's leading active goal scorer rattled the cage for the 100th time in her career with 1:16 on the clock in the third quarter.

SEEING THE STATSStanford leads the MPSF in both goals per game (13.14) and goals allowed per game (4.07). Individually, Makenzie Fischer is second in goals per game (2.36), Kat Klass is third (1.86), Madison Berggren seventh (1.79), Aria Fischer 15th (1.50) and Katie Dudley 22nd (1.07). Julia Hermann's 4.49 goals against average is second in the conference and her 8.39 saves per game are fifth.

LOOKING BACK TO 2017Maggie Steffens scored the game winner with nine seconds left and Stanford won the program's sixth NCAA championship with an 8-7 victory over UCLA on May 14 in Indianapolis. The championship was the Cardinal's sixth overall and fifth in the past seven seasons. Stanford, the only team to appear in all 17 NCAA championships since its inception in 2001, has racked up a record of 36-11 postseason record.

WHAT'S IN STOREStanford will again be in strong position to repeat in 2018. Despite losing three of its top four scorers, the Cardinal returns a pair of 2017 All-Americans in Makenzie Fischer and Jordan Raney along with 20-goal scorers Kat Klass, Madison Berggren and Katie Dudley.

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A post shared by Stanford Women's Water Polo (@stanfordh2opolo) on Sep 23, 2017 at 9:29pm PDT

Among six departed seniors, Stanford must replace a quartet of All-Americans in Maggie Steffens, Jamie Neushul, Dani Jackovich and Gabby Stone. Julia Hermann, a 2016 All-American while Stone was away training with the U.S. women's national team, will resume her place in the cage for the Cardinal.BACK IN THE CAGERedshirt senior Julia Hermann returns as Stanford's full-time starting goalkeeper in place of the graduated Gabby Stone. When Stone took off the 2016 season to train with the United States, Hermann was one of the best in the country. She posted a 5.67 goals against average in 110.809 quarters and made 244 saves, an average of 8.81 per game and the highest total at Stanford since 2001. A third-team All-American that year, Hermann had 10 double-digit save performances, made 31 saves in three games at the NCAA championships in Los Angeles and was voted the tournament's best goalkeeper.

SUMMER WITH USAWPJordan Raney received her first senior women's national team action this summer and won gold at the FINA World Championships in Budapest with current teammates Makenzie and Aria Fischer and Stanford alums Jamie Neushul, Kiley Neushul, Melissa Seidemann, Maggie Steffens, Gabby Stone.

???? #GoStanford #SUTaipei2017

A post shared by Stanford Women's Water Polo (@stanfordh2opolo) on Aug 29, 2017 at 8:11am PDT

The United States won gold at the 2017 World University Games in Taipei in August behind the play of eight Cardinal. Current undergrads Madison Berggren, Aria Fischer, Kat Klass and Jordan Raney were joined by alumnae Dani Jackovich, Jamie Neushul, Kiley Neushul and Gabby Stone as the U.S. rolled to eight wins and outscored its opponents 127 to 38.

Freshman Sarah Klass and the United States finished fifth at the FINA Junior World Championship in Greece in September. Klass played in all seven games and scored six times on 15 shots to go along with a pair of assists.IN THE POLLSStanford, the nation's preseason No. 1 for the fourth consecutive year, remained No. 1 in the CWPA poll released Wednesday. The Cardinal has 98 points and is followed by Cal (96 points), USC (93 points), UCLA (88 points) and Hawaii (84 points).