BREAKING:
Gallery: Womens water polo sinks to Stanford in NCAA championship
By Amy Dixon
May 15, 2017 1:45 p.m.
Although the championship was over a thousand miles away in Indiana, a number of UCLA fans made the trip.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
Senior utility Mackenzie Barr didn’t score a goal in the championship game, but had a huge role in getting UCLA there in the first place. She recorded a hat trick in the first round game against Wagner, and in the semifinal against Cal.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
At halftime, UCLA was down 5-2, and faced its largest deficit to a top-three team since the Bruins played USC in late February, before they limited Stanford to just three goals in the second half and scored five themselves.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
Freshman attacker Maddie Musselman had three goals in the championship game, including a bar-in strike off the right post from nearly 8 meters out as UCLA’s shot clock wound down in the fourth quarter, which required a long wind-up.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
During the second-half stretch when the Bruins mounted their comeback, there was a mix of emotions on both sides.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
In the last minute of play, No. 2 Stanford stole the ball away from No. 1 UCLA women's water polo and scored on its next possession. The Bruins could not match the late goal and fell to the Cardinal in the national championship game.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
As the clock struck zero and Stanford goalie Gabby Stone blocked a last-minute attempt, the Cardinal bench looked at its teammates in the water before shortly joining them thereafter.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
UCLA gathered in its pre-game huddle for the last time in the 2017 season just minutes before the opening sprint.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
Stanford’s national championship wasn’t just the Cardinal’s fifth in the past seven seasons, but the school’s 113th overall, tying UCLA for the most total national championships.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
Redshirt senior defender Alys Williams scored three goals in the second half of her last game with UCLA to help the team come back from a three-goal deficit and tie the match, before Stanford pulled away in the final seconds.
(Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin)
