Stanford breaks tie in final seconds to win NCAA championship
Women’s water polo coach Brandon Brooks and redshirt senior goalkeeper Sami Hill console each other following a 7-6 loss to Stanford. (Austin Yu/Daily Bruin senior staff)
With 11 seconds remaining in the NCAA women’s water polo championship game, Stanford driver Kiley Neushul wound up for a penalty shot. A title match that was tied up at six goals apiece would be decided within a matter of seconds.
Neushul sent the shot soaring into the back of UCLA’s cage, converting the 5-meter penalty shot and giving Stanford a 7-6 lead.
The Bruins could not find an answer in the remaining 11 seconds as they watched the Cardinal take home its fourth NCAA championship in the past five years.
“I thought that for 99 percent of the game, it was what a championship should be,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “I thought that you had two great teams that played their hearts out and I’m extremely proud of my girls.”
That 99 percent, however, did not include the game-deciding penalty shot which was the result of an official no-possession ruling against UCLA.
“Our goalie got a two-handed stop, establishing possession and as soon as we had possession I hit the horn,” Brooks said. “The ref believed that the goalie … threw it so that she didn’t have possession, and that resulted in a penalty shot.”
Throughout the entire matchup between the two top-ranked teams, both Stanford and UCLA showed no sign of stopping each other’s offensive attacks. The intensity held up to the last second as the Bruins attempted one final shot.
“We were just looking for the next opportunity for us,” said junior attacker Charlotte Pratt. “Even after they scored, we never stopped.”
Pratt ended her day with three goals in the championship game and was able to tie it up for the Bruins in the fourth quarter at six goals each. Pratt’s offensive dominance throughout the game kept the scoring between the Cardinal and the Bruins within a one-goal margin.
“We had an amazing season, obviously this isn’t how we imagined it ending,” Pratt said. “The fans were great. The support of my teammates, my coaches, we fed off of each other … we were just feeding off of each other’s energy.”
The two losses that UCLA suffered during the regular season were against Stanford, and the 2015 NCAA championship mirrored the one-goal margins of those past games.
“We had to fight throughout that fourth quarter and it felt like it was just an uphill battle just to stay even throughout,” said Stanford coach John Tanner. “ UCLA, an amazing team, so well coached, so well prepared and so hungry to win this. That was an incredible atmosphere, an incredible water polo game. … Honored to be a part of it.”
The Bruins end their season with an overall record of 26-3 and second place in the NCAA Tournament.
“It is shameful for it to end like that,” Brooks said.
