Women's Water Polo - #1 vs. #2 -
Spiny_Norman - 03-29-2019
#2 Stanford travels to LA to face #1 and defending national champ USC tomorrow at 2 pm. Stanford has lost 1 match this year - to USC in the finals of the Irvine tournament a month ago. USC is riding a 36 match winning streak. The coaching turmoil does not seem to have affected their play.
This is likely the 2nd of 4 matches between the teams this year. They will probably face off in the MPSF finals at the end of April (at Stanford) and then the national championship two weeks later (also at Stanford).
These schools have won the last 9 NCs between them. Each time they face each other seems epic. I'll be there tomorrow. Any other CardBoarders planning to go?
RE: Women's Water Polo - #1 vs. #2 -
newguy - 03-30-2019
i can't make it unfortunately.
men's volleyball just lost to the Condoms, let's hope our women's water polo squad can pull it out.
spiny_norman -
Spiny_Norman - 03-30-2019
Stanford wins 9-8 in OT!! More when I get home.
RE: Women's Water Polo - #1 vs. #2 -
martyup - 03-30-2019
Nice. That's 2 close wins today by Stanford women against USC.
RE: Women's Water Polo - #1 vs. #2 -
Spiny_Norman - 03-30-2019
This match was a war. Very physical with each team having one of their top players disqualified for 3 exclusions.
USC jumped to a quick 2-0 lead. Stanford broke through after 10 minutes of play, but never got closer than 2 goals through the first 3 periods. Every time Stanford scored, USC responded. Stanford did change the game a bit halfway through the 3rd period when keeper Eichelberger stopped a penalty shot which would have put USC up 6-2. Still, the deficit was 7-4 going into the 4th period.
But Stanford seemed to make some adjustments on defense. They started double teaming the 2 meter player who had been drawing exclusions. Stanford scored on its first possession of the 4th period, then another a minute later, the first time all game the Cardinal scored without USC responding. Momentum Stanford.
On the other end, Stanford was playing great defense. They stopped USC time and again. But they could not break through on offense until frosh Ryann Neushul (yes, another sister after Kiley and Jamie) scored to tie and another from Makenzie Fischer gave Stanford the lead with a minute to play!
But this is USC and no win is secure until the final horn. They drew an exclusion and scored on a power play with 38 seconds to play. Stanford then had to survive a turnover and defend one last possession to send the game to OT. Makenzie Fischer scored first off an incredible counter attack pass from GK Eichelberger and then the Cardinal held off every furious offensive attack by the Trojans to win. Stanford held USC to a single goal over the final 19 minutes.
Video highlights here -
https://pac-12.com/videos/recap-makenzie-fischers-hat-trick-helps-no-2-stanford-womens-water-polo-sink-no-1-usc
A great victory over a team that had Stanford's number recently. But again these teams will likely see each other again this season. Now Stanford gets ready to host #3 UCLA next weekend.
RE: Women's Water Polo - #1 vs. #2 -
M T - 03-30-2019
Thanks for the recap. This game will be on the PAC-12 national channel on Monday morning at 11:30AM.
Other WWP games coming up on the PAC-12 national channel:
Saturday 4/6 1:30PM USC @ CAL
Monday 4/8 11:30AM UCLA @ Stanford (repeated 4/9 6AM)
RE: Women's Water Polo - #1 vs. #2 -
Spiny_Norman - 04-07-2019
(03-30-2019, 05:56 PM)M T Wrote: Other WWP games coming up on the PAC-12 national channel:
Saturday 4/6 1:30PM USC @ CAL
Monday 4/8 11:30AM UCLA @ Stanford (repeated 4/9 6AM)
You definitely want to watch the replay of the Stanford - UCLA match. Very dramatic. Stanford gave up a 4 goal lead, then scored with 5 seconds remaining to pull out a victory over the Bruins yesterday.