USC Women’s Water Polo Falls To Stanford In MPSF Championship

Sunday, April 12

Berkeley, Calif.

2:30 p.m.

USC

22-3

Stanford

13-1

Team	1	2	3	4	OT	OT	SD	SD	SD	SD	SD	Final F
Stanford (W)	4	1	5	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	16
USC (W)	2	2	8	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	14

Photo by: Nicole Hourigan

USC Women’s Water Polo Falls To Stanford In MPSF Championship

April 12, 2026 | Women's Water Polo

Box Score

BERKELEY, Calif. – The USC women's water polo team fell to the Stanford Cardinal in the MPSF Championship game. In a rematch of the 2025 NCAA championship, the game was a back and forth affair. The Trojans will now await their seeding for the 2026 NCAA Women's Water Polo Championships.

#1 USC 14, #2 Stanford 16
Ava Stryker got the Women of Troy on the board first on the 6-on-5 opportunity to open the scoring. Stanford answered with back to back tallies before Meghan McAninch found the back of the cage on another powerplay. The Cardinal tacked on two to end the period with the score standing at 4-2.

The Trojans held Stanford to just one goal in the second and added two to cut the deficit to one.

In a high offensive frame, USC scored eight goals from seven different scorers and took a two goal lead heading into the fourth.

The Cardinal once again responded, putting up six goals to USC's two to take the title game win with a final score of 16-14.

Notables

Emily Ausmus and Meghan McAninch led the offense with six total points each
Ava Stryker and Ausmus each tallied a hat trick.
Ausmus and Rachel Gazzaniga each drew three exclusions

Scoring: Ava Stryker (3), Emily Ausmus (3), Maggie Johnson (2), Alma Yaacobi (2), Meghan McAninch (2), Rachel Gazzaniga (1), Natalia Blazevic (1)

Saves: Anna Reed (7)

Up Next
USC will head to the NCAA Tournament from April 24-26 which will be hosted by UC San Diego. The tournament selection show will air Monday, April 13th at 5:00 PM PT on NCAA.com.