MPSF Water Polo Update, Feb. 5
Feb. 5, 2017 Stanford Invitational, Feb. 5
Recap by Stanford
STANFORD, Calif. -- Jamie Neushul scored five times, Gabby Stone made 15 saves and the No. 1 Cardinal won with 2017 Stanford Invitational on Sunday with victories over No. 6 UC Irvine and No. 4 Cal.
Stanford beat the Anteaters 11-4 to win its bracket and set up a showdown with the Golden Bears in the final. The Cardinal never trailed against its cross-bay rival and won 10-7 to up its record to 7-0 on the year.
The wins improved Stanford's record at Avery Aquatic Center to 92-6 since 2008. The Cardinal is back in action on Saturday, Feb. 18 when it plays Santa Clara in Berkeley at the Cal Speedo Cup.
No. 1 Stanford 11 -- No. 6 UC Irvine 4
Multi-goal efforts from Dani Jackovich, Jamie Neushul and Jordan Raney helped Stanford close out group play with an 11-4 win over UC Irvine.
Up 5-2 at halftime, the Cardinal exploded for five goals in the third and didn't allow a score to take a 10-2 lead into the final quarter. Madison Berggren scored a 5:57, Makenzie Fischer at 3:58 and Jackovich at 3:36 before Kat Klass converted a penalty with 2:04 on the clock. Raney closed out the period with second goal of the game 20 seconds before the buzzer sounded.
Neushul scored the first two for Stanford in the opening period, converting in the 6-on-5 at 7:38 and another at even strength three minutes later. Irvine's McKenna Mitchell and Stanford's Maggie Steffens traded goals a minute apart and the Cardinal led 3-1 after one.
The first six minutes of the second period were scoreless until Gabby Pierandozzi was excluded and Jackovich converted on the power play for Stanford. Irvine and Keana Eldridge would score with 20 seconds before the half, but Raney answered on the next possession nine seconds later to put her team up 5-2 at the break.
Gabby Stone played the first three quarters and made eight saves while Julia Hermann came on in the fourth and made a pair of stops.
Stanford Goals: Dani Jackovich 2, Jamie Neushul 2, Jordan Raney 2, Madison Berggren, Makenzie Fischer, Kat Klass, Sophia Monaghan, Maggie Steffens Stanford Saves: Gabby Stone 7, Julia Hermann 2
No. 1 Stanford 10 -- No. 4 California 7
Stanford scored the game's first four goals and Cal the next four to even things up, but the Cardinal closed the final 21:21 on a 6-2 run to win the Stanford Invitational with a 10-7 victory over Cal.
Kat Klass and Jamie Neushul each had hat tricks for Stanford, which raced out to an early four-goal lead behind scores from Jamie Neushul, Jordan Raney, Katie Dudley and a successful penalty from Kat Klass. The Cardinal was up 4-0 with just 16 seconds left in the opening period until Dora Antal got Cal on the board with four seconds on the clock.
The Golden Bears carried that momentum into the second quarter and tied things up with 5:21 to go after goals from Emma Wright and two more of Antal's game-high four.
Neushul nudged the Cardinal back in front in the 6-on-5 with 3:09 to go until intermission. Neushul would assist on Dani Jackovich's power play tally with six seconds on the clock and Stanford led 6-4 at the half.
Antal rattled the cage at 5:21 in the third, but then Cal's offensive force would remain quiet the remainder of the game. Antal was excluded at 3:14 and Kat Klass converted at 2:50. One minute later Wright was excluded and Maggie Steffens scored to give Stanford an 8-5 lead after three.
Neushul and Klass completed their hat tricks with four-quarter strikes.
Stanford was 6-for-9 on the power play against Cal and Gabby Stone made eight saves.
California 17, UC Davis 2...
Recap by Cal
STANFORD ¨C The No. 4 Cal women's water polo team battled back from an early hole to tie the game, but No. 1 Stanford ultimately pulled away for a 10-7 victory Sunday in the championship game of the Stanford Invitational.
The Cardinal took a 4-0 lead with less than a minute left in the first quarter before junior Dora Antal scored the first of her four goals to get the Bears (8-1) on the scoreboard. After freshman Emma Wright trimmed the deficit to 4-2, Antal scored back-to-back goals during a 48-second span of the second quarter to even the game. Stanford scored two goals late in the period to forge a 6-4 advantage at the half.
Antal's final goal of the game sliced the deficit to 6-5 but the Cardinal then came up with the deciding sequence with three unanswered goals to lead 9-5 with 6:27 to play. Two goals by junior Anna Illes closed out the scoring for Cal.
The Bears advanced to the championship match after dispatching No. 18 UC Davis 17-2 earlier in the day. A week after Cal turned back a stiff challenge from the Aggies to win 11-9 at the California Speedo Cup, the Bears blitzed UC Davis with 11 straight goals to begin the game. Wright scored four goals to lead Cal's offense while Antal and Illes added three.
Cal is back in action next Saturday for its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener at No. 23 Cal State Bakersfield. The opening sprint is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Michigan 10, San Jose State 9
UC Irvine 18, San Jose State 7...
Recap by SJSU
Stanford, Calif.----- After losing a pair of final day matches to two top-10 ranked teams, San Jose State University finished sixth in the eight-team Stanford Invitational women's water polo tournament. The #16-ranked Spartans (3-7) missed out in a 10-9 loss to #7-Michigan and lost 18-7 to #6-ranked UC Irvine. "As a team, it was a great learning experience for us -- another hard tournament with a good lineup of teams to face. We learned from each game and applied what we learned into the next game," said San Jose State's Sierra Painter, who scored three goals in four matches. "It was a way to grow individually and as a unit. Obviously, we're not happy with our record, but it was a good learning experience. We hope to take it to future tournaments and games." In its morning match with Michigan, San Jose State had a pair of one-goal first quarter leads and was tied with the Wolverines, 4-4, at the start of the second quarter after Carla Toha Vilanova scored the third of her match-high five goals. Despite trailing 6-5 at halftime and 10-7 with less than two minutes remaining the Spartans staged a comeback that fell short as the buzzer sounded. Klaudia Paradi scored her season-high third goal for San Jose State at the 1:44 mark. After a steal by McKenna Yates of the Spartans, Toha Vilanova poured in her final goal of the match at 1:28 to narrow the margin to 10-9.
"Even though the score did not come out as we wanted, we were pleased with our fight and our resiliency to keep fighting." Michigan (5-3) turned over the ball on a shot clock violation with 0:07 left in regulation. Painter fired a potential game-tying shot on goal that bounced off the cage back to Yates who took aim at the buzzer, but was wide to the left. "We're still far away from being perfect. We made a lot of mistakes. We missed a lot of opportunities that we couldn't convert in that game (against Michigan)," said San Jose State head coach Gabor Sarusi who acknowledged the Spartans' had their best match against a top-10 ranked team to date this season. Playing for fifth-place, the Spartans yielded three power-play goals as UC Irvine jumped out to a 4-0 lead late in the first-quarter. San Jose State answered with consecutive goals by Yates, Painter and Toha Vilanova, but the Anteaters scored the next three goals and were never seriously challenged after that. Toha Vilanova finished the day as San Jose State's leading scorer with seven and nine for the four-match tournament.