Stanford Women's Water Polo 2017 NCAA

A Mother's Day To Remember 

Indiana University, Bloomington hosted the 2017 NCAA Women’s Water Polo championship in their Natatorium during the weeks of May 6th – 12th. The opening rounds were held on May 6th where Wagner beat UC San Diego 6-5 to move on to play UCLA and Pacific beat Pomona-Pitzer 11-5 to move on to play Stanford. The first round was held the next week on the 12th where the top three seeds UCLA, Stanford, and USC comfortably earned their place in the semifinals. UC Berkeley upset the 4th seed UC Irvine with a score of 9-7 to secure the last spot. The semifinals both were close games with UCLA edging UC Berkeley 14-11. Bruin freshmen Maddie Musselman pushed her team to victory with 4 goals, and the team put pressure on the Bears as a whole with three opening minute goals. Stanford earned their spot in their 8th straight national championship by beating USC with a score of 10-11. Goalkeeper Gabby Stone raised her defense in the fourth quarter making three of five saves within the last minute to help seal the win for the Cardinals. The final game was a nail-biter with Stanford beating UCLA 8-7. The Cardinals came out of the gate strong holding the lead early in the match. UCLA tried to scrape their way back into the game and were able to tie it up in the fourth quarter. Both teams had chances to win but Stanford’s Maggie Steffens, also the 2016 Olympics MVP, scored the winning goal with just 9 seconds remaining to give her team its 5th national title in the past 7 years.
Please visit http://www.ncaa.com/sports/waterpolo-women for official draws, videos and recaps of the tournament.