With the top seed and an undefeated regular season, the Stanford women’s water polo team headed into the MPSF Tournament aiming to win it all and qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 1 Cardinal (25-1) only managed to accomplish one of the two goals.
Playing three games in three days, the squad went 2-1, upset by No. 4 UCLA, 9-8, in the semifinal match on Saturday. Stanford rebounded nicely on Sunday, capturing third place in the tournament with a 15-5 victory against No. 6 San Jose State. The third-place finish enabled the Cardinal to qualify for the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid.
On Friday, Stanford opened up the MPSF Tournament against No. 8 Arizona State. The Card, down 2-1 early, went on a 10-0 run to cruise to a 15-6 victory. Four players—sophomore two-meter Annika Dries, junior driver Alyssa Lo, junior two-meter Melissa Seidemann and sophomore driver Victoria Kennedy—had multiple goals.
The offense was complemented by great defense and goalie play, as senior goalie Amber Oland had 10 saves in the first half, holding the Sun Devils to only two goals and a scoreless second period. In the second half, sophomore goalie Kate Baldoni notched six stops.
“It was not a real emotional game,” said head coach John Tanner. “It was a matter of us putting away some of our opportunities in the first so we could get off to that comfortable lead. Then, they lost some of that confidence they played with early. We were pretty sloppy, especially in the second half.”
The next day, Stanford faced a much tougher UCLA team that only lost by three goals in its last meeting versus the Cardinal.
Stanford was in a peculiar position at halftime, down 5-3 with the momentum on the Bruins’ side. Seidemann and senior Kim Krueger would answer, notching two quick goals to tie the game at five. After goals from each team brought the score to 6-6, UCLA became the first team all season to close the door on the Cardinal.
A 3-0 fourth-period run gave UCLA a commanding 9-6 advantage. The final part of the fourth quarter between the Bruins and Stanford drew many parallels to last year’s national championship game between Stanford and USC, which Stanford lost 10-9.
Last year, Stanford was down 10-6 against the Women of Troy and clawed back with three goals, all coming in a span of 96 seconds. A missed shot by Dries with 10 seconds left sealed the deal against USC.
Down 9-6 against UCLA, Stanford answered with two goals in a span of 54 seconds: one by Lo and one by Dries.
With 3:22 left in the game, the Cardinal earned two golden opportunities for the equalizing score with two power play possessions but could not capitalize on either.
“We spent a lot of energy playing 5-on-6 and scrambled the first quarter, because we were down a good bit of the quarter,” Tanner said. “We were still in the game, but then they started making some nice shots outside, and we didn’t do a great job on offense finishing our opportunities. Each time we got close, they would score.”
Against San Jose State on Sunday, Stanford looked to finish the MPSF Tournament strong and did exactly that, overwhelming the Spartans in their home pool to win 15-5.
“It’s the third time we’ve played Stanford and they hammered us every time,” said San Jose State head coach Lou Tully. “I felt at this point, we had nothing to lose, and I wanted our other players to play, and I wanted some different rotations. That was the closest we played them. They’re really a great team.”
The Cardinal came out firing on all cylinders, scoring the first seven goals of the game. Junior driver Pallavi Menon had a game-high six goals. Baldoni had a game-high nine saves, with seven coming in the first period.
With the third-place finish in the MPSF Tournament and an undefeated regular season, Stanford has earned an automatic bid and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Three other MPSF schools—USC, UCLA and Cal—will join Stanford in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Stanford will face the winner of the play-in match between Redlands and Iona on May 13 at 6 p.m.