A victory over USC last weekend gave the Stanford women’s water polo team (22-1, 7-0 MPSF) the regular season Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) championship and allowed the team to reclaim the No. 1 national ranking. Heading into the conference tournament, the Card has the top seed and will play eighth-seeded Arizona State in the first round.
The tournament is being held at UCLA’s Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles.
Last weekend, Stanford faced then-No. 1 USC (20-1, 6-1) in a dramatic match at Avery Aquatics Center. Though it fell behind 4-1 in the second half, the Card continued to battle. It was able to force an overtime period and eventually prevailed, taking the match 7-6.
Stanford is set to face the No. 9 Sun Devils (16-12, 0-7 MPSF). In addition to its winless record in conference play, Arizona State is 1-12 overall against MPSF teams this season. The Cardinal has met the Sun Devils twice this season and has come away with wins in both matches. The first was on Feb. 27 at the Irvine Invitational, where Stanford came away with a 15-8 win. In the conference season, the Card defeated the Sun Devils on March 21 at home, 12-6.
Statistically, Stanford boasts one of the best teams in the conference on both sides of the ball. It is second in the conference offensively with 12 goals per game, while its defense is the conference’s best at five goals against per game.
Junior goalie Amber Oland will enter the tournament as the conference’s reigning player of the week. She earned the honor after her performance against the Trojans, where she made 13 saves, nine of them in the second half and overtime.
Stanford will open the quest for its first MPSF Tournament title since 2006 on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in Los Angeles.