Stanford at Cal Cup
Spieker Aquatics Complex • Berkeley, Calif.
Saturday, Jan. 26 vs. No. 11 Long Beach State • 9:45 a.m.
Saturday, Jan. 26 vs. No. 3 UCLA (Exhibition) • 1 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 27 vs. No. 17 Fresno State • 9:45 a.m.
Sunday, Jan. 27 vs. No. 14 San Jose State • 2:15 p.m.
2018 Statistics
WHAT'S AHEADNo. 2 Stanford opens up its season this weekend with a trio of regular-season games at the Cal Cup in Berkeley, Calif. The Cardinal will play No. 11 Long Beach State on Saturday at 9:45 a.m., No. 17 Fresno State on Sunday at the same time and No. 13 San Jose State later Sunday afternoon at 2:15 p.m. Stanford will also play UCLA in an exhibition on Saturday at 1 p.m.
CAL CUPStanford swept through the Cal Cup last January, beating UC Irvine (12-2), Fresno State (22-5) and san Jose State (15-4). Against this year's opponents, the Cardinal is 23-2 all-time against Long Beach State and has won 10 straight and 48-0 against San Jose State. Last season's 22-5 win over Fresno State was the first meeting between the two schools.
WHAT'S IN STOREDenied in its big for back-to-back national championships last May, Stanford will be in a strong position as it looks to reclaim the crown in 2019. The Cardinal returns its four leading goal scorers from a year ago in Makenzie Fischer (67), Kat Klass (39), Madison Berggren (36) and Aria Fischer (35) and welcomes more than 80 percent of its total scoring offense back into the fold (229 of 285) this season.
At the other end of the pool, Stanford must replace Julia Hermann in the cage as part of a class of four departed seniors. Hermann was a third-team All-American last season, finished second in the MPSF in goals against average (5.35) and had five of her seven double-digit save performances in the season's final seven games.
Stanford's six-person freshman class includes Youth National Team goalkeeper Thea Walsh and Junior National Team members Chloe Harbilas and Ryann Neushul. Neushul is the youngest sister of Stanford alums Kiley and Jamie Neushul, who each won three national championships with the Cardinal and combined for five first-team All-America honors.CENTURY MARKStanford returns a pair of career 100-goal scorers in 2019 in Makenzie Fischer (121) and Kat Klass (113). Klass rattled the cage for the 100th time during match at UC Santa Barbara last March 28. Fischer got hers in the regular-season finale at San Jose State on April 22.
JUNIOR FISCHERA 2016 Olympic gold medalist, Makenzie 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.
The first team All-American was one of three finalists for the 2018 Peter J. Cutino Award and her 3.99 GPA also garnered her a spot on the CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's At-Large first team.SOPHOMORE FISCHERAria Fischer earned a second-team All-America nod in her debut season at Stanford. Last season she 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 in 2018.
KLASS COLLECTS HONORKlass received her second All-America accolade last year 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 last season, had 11 multi-goal performances and four hat tricks. Klass, on the 2018 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.
HOSTING IT ALLAvery Aquatic Center is the place to be at the end of the season in late April and mid-May. Stanford will host the MPSF Championship from April 26-28 and the NCAA Championship from May 10-12. Last time Stanford hosted NCAA's in 2015, the Cardinal became the first host institution to win a national championship in its home pool.
NO. 2Stanford collected 96 points and was picked second in the 2019 Preseason Women's Varsity National Top 25, released by the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) on Jan. 16. Defending NCAA champion USC was first, garnering 100 points. UCLA came in third with 90 points, Cal fourth with 89 and Arizona State fifth with 80.