USC Hosts MPSF Championship Tournament

4/21/2014 12:00:00 AM

April 21, 2014

STANFORD (20-1 Overall, 6-0 MPSF) Gabby Stone made nine saves, while Anna Yelizarova and Ashley Grossman scores two goals apiece to lead the Cardinal to a 9-6 regular season ending win over California. The result gave Stanford its 37th-straight win over Cal dating back to 2000. Stanford receives an MPSF Tournament Quarterfinal bye as the top seed, and awaits the Cal-San Jose State winner on Saturday (Apr. 26) at 2:30 pm at USC. Grossman and Kiley Neushul are both in the MPSF's top-10 scoring list through the regular season with 40 and 42 goals respectively.

UCLA (23-3 Overall, 5-1 MPSF) held USC to a season-low four goals on Apr. 16 in a 6-4 win to clinch the two seed. Emily Donohue poured in three goals, including one in a 3-1 Bruin third quarter, and is the squad's leading scorer with 51 goals (1.96 GPG, 8th in MPSF). Sami Hill stopped 13 shots in the cage, lowering her goals-against average to 4.98, second in the MPSF. The Bruins take on No. 7 seed Bakersfield in game one of the MPSF Tournament Friday (Apr. 25) at 10:30 am. UCLA won both meetings this year, 14-3 in non-conference (Jan. 19) and 14-8 in the MPSF game (Apr. 5).

USC (22-2 Overall, 4-2 MPSF) is this year's host of both the MPSF and NCAA Tournaments at the brand new Uytengsu Aquatics Center. The Trojans are the three seed at this week's conference tournament, first meeting No. 6 seed Arizona State at 12:30 pm Friday. USC won both meetings this year, 10-4 in non-conference (Feb. 9) and 15-6 in conference (Mar. 1) Flora Bolonyai owns an MPSF-Best 4.75 goals-against average. Monica Vavic puts away 2.46 goals per game, ranking third in the conference. USC as a team scores 14.88 goals per game and allows 4.67, at the top of the conference in both categories.

CALIFORNIA (17-7 Overall, 2-4 MPSF) freshman Madeline Trabucco had seven saves at Stanford in the regular season finale to help keep the Bears in the game. Cal wins the three-way tiebreaker for the No. 4 seed over San Jose State and Arizona State (all 2-4 in MPSF play) due to the best head-to-head goal differential within the group (+1). The Bears meet No 5 seed San Jose State (who won the two-way tiebreaker over ASU with a head-to-head MPSF win) on Friday at 2:30 pm. Freshman Dora Antal is the MPSF leader in scoring average with 3.10 goals per game. Fellow first-year players Roser Tarrago ranks sixth with 2.06 GPG and Anna Illes 11th with 1.83 GPG.

SAN JOSE STATE (20-11 Overall, 2-4 MPSF) Timi Molnar reached the 50-goal plateau for the third time in her career as the Spartans closed the regular season in Bakersfield with a 13-10 win. The outcome gave the Spartans their fourth 20-win season, while the team has tied an all-time school record 377 goals on the year. Molnar had a season-high four goals at CSUB, the latter two breaking a 6-6 tie in the third. Katelynn Thompson had five of her 10 saves in the fourth quarter. In pursuit of becoming the fifth MPSF player all-time to reach 100 goals in a season, Clara Espar Llaquet scored once to bring her total to 92 entering the conference tournament. Her next goal would be a season total the MPSF has not seen since 2001 (USC's Sofia Konoukh, 104).

ARIZONA STATE (14-8 Overall, 2-4 MPSF) earned an MPSF home win over California, 6-5, to wrap up the regular season on Apr. 12. Petra Pardi had three goals and EB Keeve was named MPSF Player of the Week after collecting a regulation career-high 17 saves, six coming in the fourth quarter. The Sun Devils are the six seed in the MPSF Tournament, first taking on host No. 3 USC. Freshman Alkistis Benekou has scored a team-high 49 goals, ranking fifth in the MPSF with 2.23 per game. Izabella Chiappini, another freshman, has recorded 40 on the year. Keeve tallies a conference-high 12.53 saves per game.

BAKERSFIELD (12-20 Overall, 0-6 MPSF) closed the regular season at home last Friday against San Jose State. Taylor Hanson had four goals, and Paige Tsuruda had a hat trick. The Roadrunners are led by Janelle Shelby with 53 goals (1.66 GPG) and Kristen Jensen with 52 goals (1.79 GPG). Freshman goalkeeper Courtney Wahlstrom collects 9.71 saves per game, stopping an MPSF-High 287 shots through the regular season.