April 16, 2008

STANFORD, Calif. - The end of the 2008 regular season will be upon the No. 2 Stanford women's water polo team this Saturday, as the Cardinal take a short ride down I-280 to visit No. 9 San Jose State for a 12 p.m. contest. Having already sewn up the No. 2 seed in next weekend's MPSF Tournament, the Cardinal (22-3, 10-1 MPSF) looks to stretch its season-best winning streak to 11 games with a victory over the Spartans (13-12, 4-7 MPSF) on Saturday.

Paced by four goals last weekend from Kira Hillman, the Cardinal captured a victories over a pair of MPSF foes. Hillman's hat trick, along with 13 saves from freshman goalkeeper Amber Oland propelled Stanford to a gritty 6-5 Big Splash victory over No. 6 California. Sunday afternoon, Stanford bid adieu to seniors Jacquelyn Gauthier and Megan Nesland in victorious style with a 10-4 win over No. 8 UC Irvine.

Gauthier scored twice in her final regular-season contest at Avery Stadium, while Kelly Eaton, Kim Krueger, and Lauren Silver each added a pair of goals to the effort.

Oland made nine saves in the contest, while allowing only four goals to lower her goals-against average to 4.91, second-best among MPSF goalies that have played at least 20 games.

Sunday's win also clinched Stanford the No. 2 seed in next weekend's MPSF Tournament in San Diego. At 10-1 with one game remaining on the MPSF schedule, the Cardinal is one game ahead of third-place USC, and hold the regular-season tiebreaker over the Women of Troy by virtue of its 8-7 overtime victory in Los Angeles on April 5.

As the second seed, the Cardinal receives a bye into Friday's 12:40 p.m. contest, and will face the winner of Thursday's game between the seventh and tenth seeds.

The Spartans are led offensively by a pair of 40-goal scorers in Juliet Moss (45 goals) and Bridget McKee (42 goals), while in the cage, Kendra Adama averages 8.48 saves per contest.