USC
Stanford
USC Edged In OT At Stanford
April 24, 2010 | Women's Water Polo
April 24, 2010
PALO ALTO, CALIF. - The No. 1 USC women's water polo team took just its second loss of the season in the Trojans' first overtime game of the year as USC visited No. 2 Stanford today. The Women of Troy fought back to force overtime with a Kristen Dronberger goal with just six seconds left in overtime, but the Cardinal got the winner in OT to claim a 7-6 victory over USC. That puts Stanford with an undefeated finish in MPSF regular-season play to give the 22-1 Cardinal the top seed for next week's MPSF Tournament. USC, now 20-2 overall, will be the No. 2 seed.
After trading decisive wins earlier in the season, USC and Stanford played a tight affair in today's MPSF closer. The Cardinal got on the board first with a 5-meter penalty shot, but USC answered with four straight goals - two from Joelle Bekhazi and two from Alexandra Kiss - as the Trojans took a 4-1 lead. Stanford got the next two, however, and USC held a slim 4-3 lead at halftime.
Another Stanford penalty shot would level the game at 4-4 in the third period, and Bekhazi's third of the day got USC ahead 5-4 later in the frame. Again. Stanford would equalize, keeping the teams even 5-5 entering the final period of regulation. There, the Cardinal took their first lead of the game to go up 6-5. With time running out, USC's Kristen Dronberger got to the rebound of a Trojan miss with just six second remaining, and the junior shoved in the equalizer to force overtime. IN the first frame of OT, Stanford managed to go up on a 6-on-4 opportunity, and Kelly Eaton got the quick score to go to take Stanford ahead 7-6. That would conclude the scoring on both ends for the remainder of overtime, and the Trojans were stuck with their first loss since an early-season loss to the Cardinal in the same Stanford pool. The loss snaps an 18-game win streak held by USC and makes Stanford the MPSF champion and top seed for the coming MPSF Tournament, to be held April 30-May 2 at UCLA.
#2 Stanford 7, #1 USC 6 (OT)
USC 2 - 2 - 1 - 1 --- 0 - 0 = 6
STAN 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 --- 1 - 0 = 7
SCORING:
USC -- Joelle Bekhazi 3, Alexandra Kiss 2, Kristen Dronberger.
STAN -- Eaton 2, Holshouser 2, Coughlan, Krueger, Seidemann.
SAVES: Tumua Anae (USC) 12, Amber Oland (STAN) 13.
