May 2, 2010

Los Angeles, Calif. - The No. 1 seed Stanford women's water polo team (24-2) scored the first four goals of the match and never looked back, posting a 10-3 victory over third-seeded California (24-8) in the third-place match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Sunday (May 2) afternoon.

Melissa Seidemann got the Cardinal on the board first with her 46th goal of the year at the 6:02 mark of the opening period when she got the ball in the middle and fired it past California goalkeeper Stephanie Peckham. Cassie Churnside scored her first goal of the Tournament (15th of the season) on a 6-on-5 opportunity with 4:06 left, giving Stanford a 2-0 lead. Stanford built its lead to 3-0 when Kim Krueger scored her 25th goal of the year ending the scoring for the first period with 1:05 remaining.

Stanford raced to a 4-0 lead when Annika Dries got the ball in the center and fired to the left post for her 31st goal of the year with 6:23 to go in the second period. California stopped the bleeding with a breakaway goal on the right side from Julie Oreglia, her 20th of the year, at the 5:20 mark of the second quarter. Seidemann scored her second of the day on a long shot from the top to give Stanford a 5-1 lead with 4:11 left in the second period. That score would hold up till the break.

Emily Csikos pulled Cal to within three goals when she scored her 66th goal of the year at 7:21 of the third period to make it 5-2. Kelly Eaton got a rebound goal when Peckham stopped a shot by Dries with 5:25 left in the third to push the lead to 6-2.

The Cardinal scored on a penalty shot by Eaton in the fourth quarter with 6:38 left in the match. Seidemann completed her hat trick with a skipper past Peckham with 5:30 remaining, giving the Cardinal a commanding 8-2 advantage. Then Stanford's Eaton completed her hat trick with 4:53 left from a nice pass inside from Churnside to make it 9-2. Kate Baldoni came in to replace Oland in the cage for the Cardinal for the final 4:53 of the fourth quarter. Elizabeth McLaren scored her 12th goal of the season, sending a shot in the top right corner past Baldoni with 3:05 to go in the fourth period. Dries pump-faked Peckham and then lobbed one over her for her second score of the day to put Stanford up 10-3 with 1:36 left, ending the scoring for the game.

Oland finished with three saves in the cage for Stanford and Baldoni picked up two on short-handed plays for the Cardinal while Peckham recorded nine for California. Eaton won the first and last of the sprints for the Cardinal while Csikos won the middle two for the Golden Bears.

No. 3 California vs. No. 1 Stanford (MPSF 3rd-Place Match)

California Goals: Emily Csikos, Julie Oreglia, Elizabeth McLaren
California Saves: Stephanie Peckham 9

Stanford Goals: Melissa Seidemann 3, Kelly Eaton 3, Annika Dries 2, Cassie Churnside, Kim Krueger
Stanford Saves: Amber Oland 3, Kate Baldoni 2