No. 1 Stanford (16-1, 4-0)
at No. 4 California (13-5, 1-2)
Saturday, April 13 • 21 p.m. PT
Spieker Aquatics Complex • Berkeley, Calif.
Stanford Statistics
WHAT'S AHEADIn sole possession of first place in the MPSF, No. 1 Stanford (16-1, 4-0) concludes its 2019 road schedule when it travels to Berkeley to play at No. 4 Cal (13-5, 1-2) on Saturday, April 13 at noon.
WHAT JUST HAPPENEDStanford raced out to a 4-0 lead, but was down 5-4 with 2:44 remaining before Aria Fischer delivered the game winner with five seconds remaining in a 7-6 victory over UCLA at Avery Aquatic Center last Saturday. Tied 6-6 with 20 seconds left, UCLA had the ball and a chance to take the lead when Fischer, who was guarding Bronte Halligan on the right side, pounced on Val Ayala's attempted pass up top to Maddie Musselman. .
Stanford immediately called timeout to make substitutions and draw up the winning play. Emalia Eichelberger set things in motion with a pass ahead to Kat Klass. The Bruins were whistled for an ordinary trying to guard Klass and on the restart she dumped it inside to Fischer, who turned quickly and skipped it home to deliver the victory. .
Makenzie Fischer had five of the Cardinal's seven goals in the win, as Stanford moved to 50-31 all-time against UCLA.
MPSF PLAYER OF THE WEEKMakenzie Fischer was named MPSF/Kap7 Player of the Week for a league-leading fourth time this season when the conference announced its weekly honors on Tuesday afternoon.
Fischer poured in five goals to lead Stanford to its win over UCLA, her seventh game this season with at least that many. Her five goals upped her season total to 65 and her goals per game average to 4.06, both MPSF highs.
She's now in a tie for sixth in the Stanford record books with Maggie Steffens (2017) and Annika Dries (2011) in single-season goals and moved past Dries (183) and into seventh place in career goals with 186. The junior, who was responsible for 71 percent of Stanford's scoring offense in the win, has accounted for 24 percent of the Cardinal's goals all season (65-of-276).
AGAINST CALStanford is 56-22 all-time against the Golden Bears and has won three straight. In this season's previous meeting at the Stanford Invitational on Feb. 3, three Cardinal each scored four times and Stanford blew past Cal, 17-10. Makenzie Fischer, Kat Klass and Sarah Klass each had four-goal performances, Aria Fischer also had a hat trick and the sisters Klass and Fischer combined for 15 of Stanford's 17 goals. Madison Berggren and Cassidy Wiley added the other two tallies for the Cardinal.
CARDINAL TO CHINANo strangers to representing Stanford on a global stage, the Cardinal women's water polo program announced a summer trip to China on March 22 for two weeks of sports diplomacy - water polo, student exchanges and exploration.
Running from June 23 – July 8, the Cardinal will start and end the trip training with and competing against the Chinese National Team. In between, the team will tour sites in an around Chengdu, where they are being hosted by China's Water Polo Federation, and also visit the Tibetan Plateau of Western Sichuan province.
Stanford's preparations for the trip began in earnest weeks ago with the formation of a robust seminar series covering Chinese history, culture and language, Sino-American relations, development economics examining health and education in rural China, entrepreneurship and diplomacy.
FULL STORY: stanford.io/2UQgvQB
USA WATER POLO HALL OF FAMEJessica Steffens, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist and two-time, first-team All-American at Stanford, and Dunlevie Family Director of Women's Water Polo John Tanner will be part of USA Water Polo's 2019 Hall of Fame Class inducted on Friday, June 7 at ceremonies in Pleasanton, Calif.
Steffens and Tanner are two of seven members who will go into USA Water Polo's Hall of Fame as part of its 35th induction class.
A 2012 Olympic gold medalist and 2008 Olympic silver medalist, Steffens was a 2010 Peter J. Cutino Award finalist, a first-team All-American for the Cardinal in 2009 and 2010 and a three-time academic All-American.
In his 22nd season at Stanford, John Tanner took the reins of the developing women's water polo program in 1998 and has turned it into a powerhouse that has produced six NCAA Championships (2002, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017).
A five-time national coach of the year who holds a 538-78 (.873) career record at Stanford, Tanner has tutored nine ACWPC Players of the Year, seven Peter J. Cutino award winners, 112 ACWPC All-America selections and student-athletes that have earned a total of 198 ACWPC All-Academic selections.
SEEING THE STATSStanford tops the MPSF in goals per game (16.24), ahead of USC (14.09), and is second in goals allowed per game (5.94) trailing the Trojans (4.09). Individually, Makenzie Fischer leads the league in goals per game (4.06) and Sarah Klass is seventh (1.94). Aria Fischer is ninth (1.88), Kat Klass and Madison Stamen are 11th (1.63), Madison Berggren is 13th (1.55) and Ryann Neushul 22nd (1.24). Emalia Eichelberger's 6.68 goals against average is fourth in the conference and her 9.01 saves per game are fourth. Thea Walsh is second in goals against average (5.19) and ninth in saves per game (6.07).
WHAT'S IN STORE IN 2019Denied in its big for back-to-back national championships last May, Stanford is be in a strong position as it looks to reclaim the crown in 2019. The Cardinal returns its four leading goal scorers from a year ago in Makenzie Fischer (67), Kat Klass (39), Madison Berggren (36) and Aria Fischer (35) and welcomes more than 80 percent of its total scoring offense back into the fold (229 of 285) this season.
At the other end of the pool, Stanford must replace Julia Hermann in the cage as part of a class of four departed seniors. Hermann was a third-team All-American last season, finished second in the MPSF in goals against average (5.35) and had five of her seven double-digit save performances in the season's final seven games.
Stanford's six-person freshman class includes Youth National Team goalkeeper Thea Walsh and Junior National Team members Chloe Harbilas and Ryann Neushul. Neushul is the youngest sister of Stanford alums Kiley and Jamie Neushul, who each won three national championships with the Cardinal and combined for five first-team All-America honors.
HOSTING IT ALLAvery Aquatic Center is the place to be at the end of the season in late April and mid-May. Stanford will host the MPSF Championship from April 26-28 and the NCAA Championship from May 10-12. Last time Stanford hosted NCAA's in 2015, the Cardinal became the first host institution to win a national championship in its home pool.