When the women’s water polo team takes to the pool this Saturday, it will be the first step in getting back into the groove that had them previously unbeaten all season. That streak ended on Saturday when the Card fell to the No. 2 Trojans of USC.
The top-ranked Stanford women’s water polo team suffered its first setback of the 2010 season on Sunday, as it was denied another UC-Irvine Invitational title in a 10-6 loss to USC. The Cardinal opened the day with a 10-4 victory over No. 3 UCLA in the semifinal round, but fell to USC later in the day, missing an opportunity for a second straight UCI Invitational title.
Now No. 2 Stanford (12-1, 1-0 MPSF) prepares for a busy weekend of action before the two-week break for final exams, hosting No. 14 San Diego State and No. 13 UCI Friday and Saturday afternoons, respectively, then traveling to Davis for a Sunday doubleheader. There, the Cardinal will open with Cal State Bakersfield at 11 a.m. before closing out the weekend with host No. 15 UC-Davis at 2 p.m.
Looking forward to the competition of the weekend, San Diego State (10-5) faces the Cardinal in its MPSF opener Friday, and has split its past eight games. The Aztecs are led by the play of Amber Pezzolla (27 goals), while Kelly Campoli leads the MPSF with 10.13 saves per game in the cage.
UCI (7-7) has dropped three of its last four games heading into the weekend, and is led by the scoring of Caitlin Haskell (13 goals) and Jessy Cardey (10 goals) and the goalkeeping of Lauren Davis (19 saves).
Cal State Bakersfield (7-10) enters the weekend having split its past six contests, and features scorers Kaitlin Torres (36 goals), Alyson Moss and Becky Seelos (19 goals apiece). In the cage, Megan Pezzolla has made 123 saves on the year.
UC-Davis (7-9) has lost three of its last four heading into this weekend’s Aggie Shootout. The Aggies are led by the play of Jessica Dunn (21 goals), Carly Ternasky (19 goals) and goalie Casey Hines (8.5 saves per game).
After Saturday’s loss, Stanford is looking to regain momentum and improve on its problems.
“We did not have the same attitude against USC that we had in our other games,” said junior Kate Baldoni.
The Cardinal will need that attitude on Saturday, and again for its future matchups with USC. Stanford will end its regular season with a home match against USC on April 24.
Still, the women have now equaled their total number of conference losses last season – one – and intend to keep it that way.
“We got clobbered by USC, but then we clobbered UCLA, so we felt like we at least ended on a good note,” said senior Jessica Steffens.
Steffens and her teammates hope to carry some of that momentum into this weekend’s four-game set to get them back to their winning ways before they tackle the MPSF Championships in late April and early May.
“If anything, I think this loss [to USC] should help us prepare for NCAAs and MPSFs,” said junior Kim Krueger. “We know what we need to work on, and we will be able to carry this feeling throughout the rest of the season as motivation.”
The Cardinal looks to bounce back tomorrow against San Diego State. The match begins at 4 p.m. at the Avery Aquatic Center.