SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Stanford driver Kiley Neushul was named the recipient of the 2015 Peter J. Cutino Award when The Olympic Club of San Francisco held the 16th Annual Cutino Awards Dinner on Saturday night. The award, given to the outstanding female and male collegiate water polo players in the United States as voted by the coaches of the Division I schools, has been won by a Cardinal each of the last five years.
Also the 2012 Peter J. Cutino award winner as a freshman, Saturday marked the second time Neushul was picked as the nation’s best and is now Stanford’s second two-time winner. Annika Dries won in 2011 and 2014. Five Stanford women have earned the honor seven times, including every year since 2011. In addition to Neushul and Dries, Brenda Villa (2002), Jackie Frank (2003) and Melissa Seidemann (2013) are the other Cardinal student-athletes to achieve the accolade, which was instituted in 1999.
On May 10, Neushul led Stanford to the program’s fourth national championship in the past five seasons with a 7-6 victory over UCLA at Avery Aquatic Center. The Cardinal, which has won five NCAA crowns in program history, also became the first host institution to claim the title in the 15 years since the tournament’s inception in 2001. The NCAA title was also the 106th won by a Stanford team and extended the school’s national-best streak of years with at least one NCAA championship to 39, dating back to 1976-77.
Amazing acceptance speech by @Jneushul8 on behalf of Kiley at Cutino Award Dinner. #gostanford pic.twitter.com/dczWfYNwPS
— Stanford Water Polo (@Stanfordh2opolo) June 7, 2015
The senior Neushul capped her collegiate career by converting a game-winning penalty shot with 11 seconds remaining to send the capacity crowd into a frenzy. She scored five of Stanford’s seven goals in the championship and was named to the tournament’s first team after scoring nine goals in three games.
A three-time All-American, Neushul’s 222 career goals are third in Cardinal history. Her 63 in 2015 were a personal best and are tied for seventh in Stanford single-season history. The communication major scored in all but one of Stanford’s 27 games, putting up 18 multi-goal efforts and 12 hat tricks. She leaves The Farm a three-time national champion after guiding Stanford to a 105-8 record over the last four years.
Teammate Maggie Steffens and UCLA goalkeeper Sami Hill were the other finalists for the award.
Neushul and Steffens, along with Ashley Grossman, Seidemann and Stanford signee Makenzie Fischer are currently with the USA Senior Women’s National Team, which just won the 2015 Kunshan Cup in China. They will move on to Shanghai to represent the United States in the FINA World League Super Final, which begins Tuesday.
Peter J. Cutino Award:
1999 - Bernice Orwig (USC)
2000 - Aniko Pelle (USC) & Sean Kern (UCLA)
2001 - Coralie Simmons (UCLA) & Sean Kern (UCLA)
2002 - Brenda Villa (Stanford) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2003 - Jackie Frank (Stanford) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2004 - Moriah Van Norman (USC) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2005 - Natalie Golda (UCLA) & Tony Azevedo (Stanford)
2006 - Lauren Wenger (USC) & Juraj Zatovic (USC)
2007 - Kelly Rulon (UCLA) & John Mann (Cal)
2008 - Courtney Mathewson (UCLA) & Tim Hutten (UC Irvine)
2009 - Kami Craig (USC) & J.W. Krumpholz (USC)
2010 - Kami Craig (USC) & J.W. Krumpholz (USC)
2011 - Annika Dries (Stanford) & Ivan Rackov (California)
2012 - Kiley Neushul (Stanford) & Joel Dennerley (USC)
2013 - Melissa Seidemann (Stanford) & Balazs Erdelyi (Pacific)
2014 - Annika Dries (Stanford) & Balazs Erdelyi (Pacific)
2015 – Kiley Neushul (Stanford) & Kostas Genidounias (USC)