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Palo Alto Online

Stanford's Gardner is unsung, but certainly not unnoticed

by Rick Eymer

In the midst of the most intensely-played, pressure-packed women's water polo contest of the season, in which Stanford beat UCLA, 3-2, in seven overtimes for the MPSF championship last week, Cardinal senior Julie Gardner found herself in a light-hearted conversation with UCLA's Robin Beauregard, a member of the United States National Team who competed in the 2000 Olympics.

"We always chat while we're in the water," said Gardner, who played at Menlo School. "We have full conversations during the game."

They manage to talk while still physically battling each other for every ounce of water, and every inch of territory.

"We were off to the side at one point and she said to me, 'We should let the little people finish the game and go off to the side and rest,' " said Gardner. "She makes me laugh. That was an exciting game to be a part of, an epic, and she makes you take a step back and realize it's just a game."

Gardner and Beauregard probably will go at it again should both teams reach the NCAA championship game on Sunday at UC San Diego. To get there, the top-ranked Cardinal (20-2) must beat fourth-seeded Indiana (26-9) and sophomore goalkeeper Jessica Goldner, a Gunn High grad, on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Second-seeded UCLA (21-4) squares off with No. 3 Loyola Marymount (23-8) in the other semifinal ay 3 p.m.

Stanford beat Indiana earlier this season, 15-3 in the Stanford Invitational on Feb. 9. The two teams have faced each other once before, with Stanford taking a 16-1 victory over the Hoosiers on Feb. 17, 2001 at the Michigan Invitational.

In two previous NCAA title matches, UCLA and Stanford have each won once. The Cardinal are the defending champions.

Gardner said she enjoys playing against Beauregard because she's "so unique and so calm in the water. She's easy to talk with. We still brawl but what's nice is she's not going to hate me - I think - after the game."

Gardner feels the same way about Goldner, who spent five years playing with the Stanford club team over the summers, the past couple with Gardner.

"She's a friend and we chat and it's fun to play against people like that," said Gardner. "I've shot on her in practice and now I'm going to shoot on her in a game."

Gardner is one of four seniors - Brenda Villa, Jackie Frank and Nicole Huszcz are the others - playing their final water polo matches in a Stanford uniform and she would like nothing more than to make them the most memorable.

"It almost means more because this is the last chance to bring home a national title," she said. "It makes it seem a little bigger, more real. Somehow it's more special this time."

Gardner may not get noticed by the casual fan but she'll make an important contribution to Stanford's effort to repeat as national champions. Villa and Frank tend to grab all the headlines, but Gardner, a four-time All-American, is a vital part of the Cardinal puzzle.

"You could make a case for Brenda being one of the top field players in the world and Jackie being one of the top goalies in the world," said Stanford coach John Tanner. "It would be tough for Julie to overshadow those two, but she seems to get a huge amount of respect. UCLA puts their top defender (Beauregard) on her. A lot of coaches have told me how much they admire the way she plays. She's tough, durable, and does a lot of little things in addition to scoring goals."

Gardner, whose 24 goals are second on the team behind Villa's 43, doesn't mind the lack of attention. She prefers to revel in her teammates' notoriety.

"Brenda and Jackie are two players I admire greatly," said Gardner. "It's a privilege to play with them. I feel lucky to have them around. I read a big story about Brenda in one of the papers recently and I thought, 'hey, I play with her.' It made me proud."

"Julie is especially valuable because she's equally talented, and determined, on offense and defense," said Tanner. "Even though she plays the two-meter position she takes a lot of pounding. Robin weighs something like 175 pounds and she's constantly using her size to make it difficult. Julie carries Robin around the pool every time we play UCLA."

Gardner developed into one of the top collegiate players because she was never satisfied. She always felt she could get better and she never turned down a challenge.

"I was nervous when I first came here," she said. "I had an edge over the other freshmen because I knew the pool and the coaches but I was still scared and got yelled at. I felt well-prepared from high school but I still knew it was going to be a jump. I was scared I would be too slow for college water polo. So I just got faster."

Faster, bigger, tougher, and better.

"She was considered one of the best players in the CCS," Tanner said. "When she played against Northern California players, there weren't many who stood out the way she did. A lot more highly-regarded players from Southern California were more heavily recruited but you could tell she had the hands, the athleticism and the explosiveness. Her high school coach, Kyle Utsumi, did a great job of encouraging her and getting her to see the overall game. She has a wonderful attitude and it didn't take long for her to figure it out.

"And she keeps getting better," Tanner added. "She's refined everything she does. She's a good shot blocker and tends to be around when big plays need to be made."

Gardner came extremely close to attending UCLA over Stanford despite growing up so close to the campus and having an older sister (Suze) attend Stanford.

"To this day I'm not really sure why I didn't go," she said. "I thought I wanted to go away from home and live the whole college experience. UCLA is a great program with great coaches. A day earlier and I might have signed with UCLA. The day I did sign, I just realized I wanted to go to Stanford. I also liked the idea of being able to watch my younger sister."

Indiana presents a unique challenge for Stanford as the Hoosiers have three left-handers, including senior Kristin Stanford, who also played with the Stanford club team the past two summers.

"Usually a team brings the ball up the right side of the pool to set up their right-handed shooters," said Tanner. "Indiana does a lot of things on the left side of the pool. You're natural inclination is to guard the right side. We're not totally unfamiliar with left-handers but it does present a different challenge."

Stanford, Indiana's all-time scoring leader, has netted a Hoosiers' record six goals in a game twice this year, and broke her own single-season scoring record for the third time in her career with 73 goals this year.

Goldner was the CCS Goalie of the Year as a senior at Gunn, and certainly impresses the Stanford coaching staff.

"She's a good goalie and a wonderful person," said Tanner. "It's going to be weird playing against her. Indiana is a perfect place for her. She seems to love it there and she's responded well."

Goldner tied a school record with 19 saves on 24 shots, a .792 save percentage in a 5-1 victory over Princeton in the semifinals of the Eastern tournament.