LOS ANGELES – Beck Jurasius scored three goals, but it wasn't enough to prevent top-ranked Stanford from losing to California, 16-11, on Sunday afternoon, dropping its second game of the day at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
Stanford (1-2 overall, 1-2 MPSF) earlier lost to UCLA, 15-13, and finished its season-opening four-team Mountain Pacific Sports Federation round-robin weekend at 1-2. Cal, UCLA, and USC each entered the weekend tied for No. 2 behind Stanford in the CWPA rankings.
Against No. 2 Cal (5-2, 5-2), which won all three over the weekend, Stanford got 11 saves from Andrew Chun and two goals apiece from Quinn Woodhead and A.J. Rossman, but couldn't match Cal's surge late in the second quarter.
Stanford was up 3-1 after goals by Jurasius, Parker Killion, and Woodhead. And an AJ Rossman skip shot on a penalty gave the Cardinal a 6-5 lead midway through the second quarter. However, Cal closed the half with five consecutive goals for a 10-6 lead.
Tyler Abramson made a steal deep in defense and took the ball the length of the pool before his shot was blocked, but Jurasium snagged the loose ball and fired it in to cut the deficit to 10-8 with 5:05 left in the third quarter. However, Stanford was unable to get as close thereafter.
The same four schools meet again in a Feb. 20-21 round-robin, which is expected to be at Stanford, to close the regular season.
#2 Cal 16, #1 Stanford 11
Feb. 7, 2021 | Uytengsu Aquatics Center
STAN 3 - 3 - 3 - 2 = 11
CAL 3 - 7 - 4 - 2 = 16
SCORING:
STAN — Beck Jurasius 3, Quinn Woodhead 2, AJ Rossman 2, Soren Jensen, Tyler Abramson, Parker Killion, Ethan Parrish.
CAL — Jack Deely 4, Garrett Dunn 3, Nikolaos Papanikolaou 2, Tommy Kennedy 2, Joe Molina, Miles O'Brien-Schridde, Nikos Delagrammatikas, Alika Naone, George Avakian.
Soren Jensen battles Cal for possession on Sunday. Photo by Catharyn Hayne.
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TOP-RANKED STANFORD suffered its first loss of the young season, falling to No. 2 UCLA, 15-13, on Sunday morning.
Ethan Parrish scored three goals, all in fourth quarter, to try to ignite a Cardinal comeback, but UCLA (4-3, 3-3 MPSF) answered each time to choke any momentum. Meanwhile, the Bruins got a career-high eight goals from Nicolas Saveljic, who repeatedly got behind the Cardinal defense for breakaway scores.
Stanford (1-1, 1-1), the defending national champion, had a seven-game winning streak snapped.
An opening goal by Beck Juracius and the first of the season by Andrew Churukian gave Stanford brief leads, the latest at 2-1. But after Soren Jensen's backdoor one-touch close-range shot tied the game at 4-4 early in the second quarter, UCLA pulled away and never relinquished the lead, which grew to as high as 10-5 in the third quarter.
Six times, Stanford pulled within three goals – the first after Tyler Abramson's penalty gave him back-to-back goals and pulled the Cardinal within 10-7 with 11 seconds left in the third. However, UCLA responded every time with a score of its own.
Stanford closed to within the final margin on a skip shot by Larsen Weigle, his second goal of the fourth quarter, with 27 seconds left. However, UCLA was able to run out most of the clock and prevent any further scoring threats.
Parker Killion. Photo by Catharyn Hayne.
#2 UCLA 15, #1 Stanford 13
Feb. 7, 2021 | Uytengsu Aquatics Center
UCLA 3 - 5 - 2 - 5 = 15
STAN 3 - 2 - 2 - 6 = 13
SCORING:
UCLA leader — Nicolas Saveljic 8.
STAN — Ethan Parrish 3, Beck Jurasius 2, Tyler Abramson 2, Larsen Weigle 2, Andrew Churukian, Riley Pittman, Soren Jensen, Walker Seymour.