April 4, 2015
Stanford, Calif.----- Six players scored a three-goal "hat trick," but five of them were from Stanford as the Cardinal defeated San Jose State, 23-6, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) women's water polo match.
Victoria Smith was the Spartan to record a "hat trick," her third of the season and second in as many games for San Jose State (18-8, 0-4 MPSF). Bianca Seyfert scored twice and Clara Espar Llaquet, once, for the Spartans. Espar Llaquet's goal, San José State's first of the match at 6:23 of the first quarter, was her 80th of the season.
For Stanford (18-1, 3-0 MPSF), Kiley Neushul, Gurpreet Sohi, Jamie Neushul, Maggie Steffens and Ashley Grossman scored three times. Jordan Raney, Anna Yelizarova and Rachel Johnson found the cage twice for the Cardinal, which matched its season-high single-game scoring total.
"If they get up by a few goals, it's tough to come back to them. If you make a mistake, they capitalize on it," said San José State head coach Johnny Bega, whose team lost to Stanford, 11-8, earlier in the season.
Stanford scored on its four possessions of the match and finished the first quarter with a 7-2 lead. San Jose State trailed 13-4 at halftime in its most one-sided loss of the season.
"For us, we need to make fewer mistakes and control what we can control. Stanford is a team that works very hard and moves very fast. To defend that, we had to stop their counter-attack. If we could have stopped that, we would have had a more even match," added the Spartans head coach.
Goalkeeper Katelynn Thompson was credited with four saves for San Jose State. Stanford starting goalkeeper Gabby Stone made five stops in the 3.5 quarters she played.
San José State is next in action, Saturday, April 4, at the University of Southern California, in a MPSF match.
Scoring Summary
San Jose State (18-8, 0-4 MPSF) 2-2-1-1=6
Stanford (18-1, 3-0 MPSF) 7-6-7-3=23
Goal scoring
San Jose State - Victoria Smith, 3; Bianca Seyfert, 2; Clara Espar Llaquet, 1.
Stanford - Gurpreet Sohi, Ashley Grossman, Jamie Neushul, Maggie Steffens, Kiley Neushul, 3, each; Anna Yelizarova, Rachel Johnson, 2, each; Dani Jackovich, Katie Dudley, 1, each.
Goalkeeper Saves
San José State - Katelynn Thompson, 4.
Stanford - Gabby Stone, 5; Emily Dorst, 0.
Ejections
San José State - 7.
Stanford - 5.