No. 1 women’s water polo 11-0 defeated No. 2 USC 14-1 on Sunday at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational hosted by UC Irvine, taking the championship win.

The Cardinal started the game off strong, shutting out USC to end the first quarter 4-0 and the first half at 6-2. Stanford maintained their lead to emerge victorious in the second half of the game, with both teams scoring 4 goals, Stanford with 3 goals in the third quarter and 1 goal in the last quarter and USC with 1 and 3 goals for their third and fourth quarters, respectively. 

Redshirt sophomore Jenna Flynn, redshirt freshman Serena Browne and redshirt senior Jewel Roemer all scored 2 goals apiece, with redshirt Ryann Neushul adding 3 more to the Cardinal’s total. All of these athletes red-shirted in the 2024 season to train with the U.S. (Flynn, Roemer, Neushul) and Canadian (Browne) national teams in preparation for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. 

Sophomore Christine Carpenter’s saves were critical to slowing USC’s offense. Her career high of 13 saves only let the Trojans score 6 goals in their 32 attempts.

Stanford saw three ejections per quarter, with the exception of the third quarter, which had five ejections.

Earlier in the weekend, Stanford defeated the defending NCAA champion, No. 3 UCLA, 14-4. Last year, the Cardinal lost to UCLA 17-14 in the championship semifinals. The 14-4 score represented the Bruins’ worst loss against Stanford in their history.

The team is hoping to continue their offseason momentum into their in-season games. On March 2, the Cardinal will play No. 11 UC Davis at home in their first game of the seasonat Avery Aquatic Center.