Hawaii Hosts MPSF Tournament; USC No. 1

4/20/2009 12:00:00 AM

April 20, 2009

USC (7-0 MPSF, 21-1 overall) earned the MPSF Tournament's top seed by virtue of a convincing 11-6 home finale win over top-ranked Stanford this past Saturday. The Trojans, who also topped Long Beach State 9-5 Sunday, are paired up with No. 8 seed Arizona State in the quarterfinals Friday (Apr. 24) at 6 pm in Honolulu, HI. USC won all three meetings this year over the Sun Devils, 19-9, 13-4, and in the MPSF game, 15-6. The winner advances to semi-final action to meet the Cal-SJSU winner. Michelle Stein is first on the MPSF scoring list (2.82 GPG).

STANFORD (6-1 MPSF, 22-2 overall) is the No. 2 seed and faces No. 7 seed San Diego State to open the 2009 MPSF Tournament in Honolulu, HI. The Cardinal won the lone meeting of the year, 11-6, March 25 at SDSU. Freshman Melissa Seidemann owns 55 goals on the year, seventh in the conference with 2.29 per game.

UCLA (5-2 MPSF, 20-5 overall) is the three seed and faces the host No. 6 seed Hawaii in quarterfinal action Friday at 4:30 p.m. UCLA won two of three meetings this year. The winner takes on the Stanford-San Diego State winner in semi-final action. Leading the four-time defending NCAA Champions is Tanya Gandy with 64 goals on the year, third most in the MPSF with 2.56 per game. Katie Rulon ranks 10th in the conference with 2.00 goals per game.

CALIFORNIA (3-4 MPSF, 30-6 overall) is seeded fourth this week and meets No. 5 seed San Jose State Friday at 7:30 pm. The winner gets either USC or Arizona State in the semi-finals. The Bears are coming off a 15-11 Saturday win over CS Bakersfield. Emily Csikos, who scored four goals in that game, owns 60 goals on the year. Goalkeeper Stephanie Peckham ranks fourth in the conference in saves per game (8.21) and third in goals-against average (4.42).

SAN JOSE STATE (3-4 MPSF, 19-12 overall) is the No. 5 seed at the MPSF Tournament, and will take on No. 4 seed California in the first-round Friday. The Spartans are coming off a regular season ending 14-5 win at No. 10 UC Davis last Saturday. Juliet Moss scored four goals and became the program's all-time career and single-season scoring leader. She is the first-ever Spartan to surpass 200 career goals. Moss checks in to the tournament with the second most goals in the MPSF with 74. The win marked the Spartans' 11th in their last 12 games entering the tournament.

HAWAII (3-4 MPSF, 16-7 overall) will be the No. 6 seed as it hosts this year's MPSF Tournament, Apr. 24-26. The Rainbow Wahine is paired up with No. 3 seed UCLA in the tournament's quarterfinal round, Friday, April 24 at 4:30 pm. Hawaii dealt UCLA its first loss in two years on Feb. 7 in non-conference play, 13-12. Leonie van der Molen (2.04 GPG) and Kelly Mason (2.00 GPG) each rank in the MPSF Top-10 in scoring.

SAN DIEGO STATE (1-6 MPSF, 22-9 overall) is the No. 7 seed and takes on No. 2 seed Stanford in Friday's quarterfinals. SDSU doubled-up on UC San Diego 14-7 in their last game Saturday. The MPSF scoring leader in Anna Gonzales (86 goals), as well as the conference saves leader in Kelly Campoli, both wear Aztec uniforms.

ARIZONA STATE (0-7 MPSF, 13-12 overall) is the No. 8 seed this week, first meeting the top seed USC. The Sun Devils are led by Addison McGrath and Lynlee Smith, each ranking in the top-five in conference scoring with 2.36 goals per game apiece.

ANAE AND MOSS MPSF MIKASA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Woodland, Calif. - USC junior goalkeeper Tumua Anae (Newport Beach, CA/Corona Del Mar HS) tallied 10 saves, while holding top-ranked Stanford to seven goals below its season average, in an 11-6 win to clinch the No. 1 seed for the MPSF Tournament. Three of her 10 stops included a 6-on-4 opportunity, a 2-meter shot, and a five-meter penalty shot. This is Anae's third weekly conference honor this year.

Woodland, Calif. - San Jose State senior two-meter Juliet Moss (San Jose, CA/Mt. Pleasant HS) became the program's all-time scoring leader with four goals, leading her team to a 14-5 win at No. 10 UC Davis to finish the regular season this past Saturday. In addition to becoming the first-ever Spartan to score 200 career goals, Moss has found the back of the cage 74 times this year, a new single-season mark for SJSU. The Spartans have won 11 of their last 12 entering the MPSF Tournament and five straight vs. a top-10 team.

Also Nominated: Katie Bentley (SDSU)