STANFORD, Calif. – Six Stanford women's water polo players earned All-America status when the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) announced its 2018 Division I All-America teams.
Makenzie Fischer and Jordan Raney led the way on the first team while Aria Fischer earned a spot on the second team. Julia Hermann and Kat Klass received third-team recognition and Katie Dudley was picked as an honorable mention All-American.
Makenzie Fischer moved up to the first team following a second-team selection as a freshman last season. One of three finalists for the Peter J. Cutino Award, Fischer also sports a 3.99 GPA and last week was also selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's At-Large first team.
A 2016 Olympic gold medalist, Fischer put together a superb sophomore campaign in which she paced Stanford with 67 goals, the fifth-most in school history. She also led the MPSF averaging 2.79 goals per game, the best for the Cardinal over the past decade (records since 2009).
Fischer, who was named to the NCAA All-Tournament first team, was dominant down the stretch. In the season's final 12 games, she scored 44 times and averaged 3.67 goals per game. Fischer had multi-score performances in 19 of Stanford's 24 games this season and has scored at least two goals in 37 of the 50 collegiate games she's played.
Raney earned her first first-team honor in her senior season. Also on the All-NCAA Tournament first team and All-MPSF first team, she was sixth on Stanford this year with 20 goals. Raney led the Cardinal in scoring with seven goals in three games at the NCAA championship in Los Angeles and finished her career with 95 career goals and a pair of national titles. She scored in 14 games and had four multi-goal efforts, including a career-high tying four goals in an 11-7 NCAA semifinal victory over No. 3 California on May 12.
Aria Fischer earned a second-team nod in her debut season at Stanford. The freshman was a two-time MPSF/Kap7 Newcomer of the Week and finished fourth on the team with 35 goals. She was 13th in the conference in goals per game (1.46), scored in eight of the Cardinal's final nine games and led all MPSF freshmen in scoring in league contests with a 1.60 goals per game average. Fischer, a 2016 Olympic gold medalist, also earned All-NCAA Tournament second team, All-MPSF second team and MPSF All-Newcomer accolades this season.
In her second season as Stanford's primary goalkeeper, redshirt senior Julia Hermann earned her second All-America third team selection to go along with the one she won in 2016. Hermann finished second in the MPSF in goals against average (5.35) and fifth in saves per game (8.54). She had five of her seven double-digit save performances in the season's final seven games, including two at the NCAA championship in Los Angeles against No. 3 California and No. 1 USC. Hermann, who was on the NCAA All-Tournament second team this year, finished her career fifth in school history in saves (469).
Klass received her second All-America accolade to go along with the second-team nod she garnered as a freshman in 2016. The junior was second on the team with 39 goals and ninth in the MPSF in scoring average (1.63). She scored in all but three games this season, had 11 multi-goal performances and four hat tricks. Klass, on this year's NCAA All-Tournament second team, was the Cardinal's second-leading scorer at the NCAA championship in Los Angeles, pouring in six goals, including three in the semifinal win over No. 3 California.
Senior Katie Dudley played her way into her first All-America nod in her final season at Stanford after scoring 21 goals in 24 games. Working at two meters, Dudley scored at least 20 goals in each of her four collegiate seasons and finished with 90 in her career. This season, she rattled the cage in 13 games and tied a career-high with five goals in a 16-4 victory over No. 8 Pacific on February 3.