February 27, 2007
Stanford, CA (CSTV U-WIRE) -- Senior goalie Meridith McColl has turned in a number of sterling performances during her four years in goal for the Cardinal, but Sunday might just have been the finest day yet of her illustrious Stanford career.
The San Diego native propelled the Cardinal to huge back-to-back victories over rivals Southern California and UCLA, posting a combined 26 saves on the day to help Stanford to a first-place finish at the Irvine Invitational.
McColl recorded a season-high 14 saves in the Cardinal's 10-8 semifinal win over the No. 3 Women of Troy. She then tallied 12 more in the evening finale against UCLA, including six in the second half, as Stanford dealt the top-ranked and defending national champion Bruins their first loss of the season, 8-4.
In addition to bringing home the tournament title, the Cardinal's resounding upset of UCLA figures to boost Stanford to the top of the national rankings for the first time in nearly four years. Not a single member of this year's squad had arrived on the Farm the last time the Cardinal held the No. 1 ranking in March 2003.
After defeating No. 16 Michigan and No. 6 San Jose State on Saturday by final margins of 16-4 and 11-6, respectively, the Cardinal (11-1, 4-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) prepared for its semifinal showdown with USC. The two teams entered the match with an even 1-1 record against each other this year, as the Cardinal rallied to pull off a dramatic 10-8 overtime victory two weeks ago to even the season series.
This time around, the Stanford women managed to finish off the Women of Troy in regulation, breaking a 5-5 tie at the half to claim the decisive 10-8 victory. Sophomore two-meter defender Jessica Steffens keyed the Cardinal offensive with four goals in the game, while sophomore Lolo Silver and senior Alison Gregorka each notched a pair. Sophomore Kira Hillman and senior Katie Hansen rounded out the scoring for Stanford.
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Silver was quick to note, however, that despite the identical final scores, her team's two recent wins against USC have come in markedly different fashion.
"[In our last game against them] we were running on emotion, but today we were a lot more composed," Silver said on Sunday. "We knew that we would be prepared for anything they ran, so we were a lot more calm today."
McColl cited the improvement of her squad's results against the Women of Troy as an indication of the direction of the Cardinal's progress.
"The first time [we played USC] this season, we lost after outplaying them and giving up some painful goals," she said. "The second time we beat them in overtime, after being ahead by two goals with two minutes left. The third game [this weekend], we beat them in regulation. That tells a story about our team - one of correcting errors, growing and improving with each game."
In the tournament title game against UCLA, Stanford jumped out to an early 2-0 first-period lead on the strength of goals from Silver and freshman Kelly Eaton. The Bruins responded with three goals of their own to briefly take the lead, but the Cardinal roared back with three unanswered goals to build a 5-3 lead heading into the half.
"UCLA has one of the best goalies in collegiate water polo," Silver said of Bruins goalie Emily Feher, who has been named a First Team All-American the last two seasons. "But we didn't go in scared to shoot or attack her, and I think that they were surprised by that."
But Stanford saved its best for last, stepping up to play lights-out defense for the final half of the game. UCLA managed a single goal just over a minute into the third period, but from that point on McColl and the Cardinal defense silenced the Bruins offense for the remaining 14 minutes and 25 seconds of the game.
Silver paced the Stanford attack with a hat-trick that pushed her team-leading goal total to 27, and junior driver Jackie Gauthier added two more.
But despite the overall effectiveness of the Cardinal's play against the Bruins, McColl ironically identified her team's mistakes as the greatest reason for optimism.
"We didn't win because of outrageous or perfectly executed plays," she said. "We won because our girls were willing to go hard for a whole game. We made plenty of mistakes during the course of the weekend, but that's what's so exciting to me - that [our team] still has tons of room for improvement. And that is what I take as the most encouraging thing moving forward from this weekend."
(C) 2007 The Stanford Daily via CSTV U-WIRE
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