Five more event victories were not enough for the top-ranked Stanford women’s swimming and diving team to earn another Pac-12 title on Saturday at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.
The Cardinal, which produced the winner in five of the seven events on the final night of competition, finished as the runner-up for the third straight year. Stanford accumulated 1,344 points. That was better than Cal’s 1,306, but just behind USC’s 1,481.
Stanford also won two of three diving events at the meet. Gracia Leydon-Mahoney won the 3-meter diving on Thursday, and then earned the top spot on the platform on Saturday. She earned a score of 341.40 to comfortably outpace the rest of the field.
Senior Sarah Haase closed out her final Pac-12 championship meet in winning fashion. She was victorious in the 200-yard breaststroke with a finish of 2:07.69, moving her to No. 4 in school history. That earned her a sweep in the breaststroke coupled with her win in the 100-yard portion of the stroke on Friday.
In the 100-yard freestyle, Lia Neal topped the field for her second individual win of the week. She tapped the wall at 46.97 to join her victory in the 200 free from one night earlier.
Meanwhile, freshman Ella Eastin earned her third individual title of the meet with a win in the 200 fly. She was more than a full second ahead of the runner-up with another impressive finish. She hit the touch pad at 1:52.01, moving to No. 2 all-time in team history.
Eastin was also a member of the 400-yard freestyle relay team that closed the meet with another Stanford win. She teamed up with Janet Hu, Ally Howe and Neal to finish just ahead of USC with a time of 3:11.44.
Women’s lacrosse
Stanford defeated visiting Harvard, 13-4, on Saturday in nonconference action at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.
The Cardinal (3-1 overall, 1-0 MPSF) held advantages in shots on goal (23-18), draw controls (10-9) and saves (14-10) over the Crimson (1-2, 0-1 Ivy League), who could not recover from an early deficit.
Senior Lucy Dikeou and junior Alex Poplawski scored three goals apiece, while sophomore goalkeeper Allie DaCar tied a career high with 14 stops.
Dikeou opened the scoring with 24:12 to play in the first. After each team hit the crossbar, Harvard tied it at one apiece near the midway point of the half.
Stanford responded with four unanswered goals to close the half to make it 5-1, including two more from Dikeou, completing her first-half hat trick.
The Crimson fought back with two goals to open the second half, but Stanford went on a 6-0 run to seal victory. Poplawski completed her hat trick with 4:24 to play in the game.
The Cardinal returns to action Sunday, hosting Vanderbilt at 1 p.m.
Men’s tennis
No. 4 UCLA held on for a 4-3 victory over No. 29 Stanford on Saturday afternoon at Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Tied at 3-3, the clincher came from Logan Staggs, who knocked off Maciek Romanowicz 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 5 spot.
Stanford (5-6) has dropped five straight matches, all to opponents ranked No. 26 or higher and with three of those matches decided by 4-3 margins.
UCLA (9-2), which has won four of its last five, avenged a 4-3 loss to Stanford on The Farm last season.
The Cardinal captured the doubles point for a 1-0 lead, with the decider coming from Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski’s 6-4 victory at the No. 2 spot.
The Bruins responded by ripping off three singles wins, moving in front 3-1 following a three-set triumph from Martin Redlicki over Wilczynski.
Paige brought Stanford within 3-2 thanks to a 7-5, 6-4 win over Gage Brymer at the No. 3 spot, before Michael Genender evened the match following a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Joseph Di Giulio at the No. 6 position.
With all eyes on court five, Staggs came through with the clincher.
Stanford next shifts its focus to individual play, competing at the Pacific Coast Doubles in La Jolla, Calif., next weekend. The Cardinal will also face Rice in a neutral-site match on Thursday at 11 a.m.
Baseball
A big fourth-inning doomed the Stanford baseball team in a 9-0 defeat at No. 23 Texas on Saturday.
The Longhorns scored six runs in the fourth to gain a 7-0 lead, and Stanford (4-3) dropped back-to-back games for the first time this year.
Texas (4-2) opened the scoring on a safety squeeze in the third inning. In the next home frame, the hosts had five hits, including a two-out, three-run home run.
Freshman Nico Hoerner broke up a perfect game when he reached first on a strikeout in the top of the fourth. He then broke up the no-hitter with one out in the seventh inning with a single up the middle.
Outside of the fourth inning, junior southpaw Chris Castellanos was effective. In the other five frames, he allowed just five hits and one run. He matched a career-high with six strikeouts.
It was a big moment for senior Bobby Zarubin in the seventh. He entered the game as a pitcher for the first time since 2013.
As a freshman, he had a 2.16 ERA in 15 appearances, but was converted to an infielder the last two seasons after shoulder surgery. He retired all four batters he faced, and induced a double play ball to retire the side in the seventh.
In the final game of the series, Brett Hanewich will take the hill for the Cardinal. He will face Texas right-hander Connor Mays.
Softball
Bessie Noll went 4-for-4 at the plate and drove in a pair of runs to lead Stanford to a 15-9 victory over North Carolina State, enabling the Cardinal to finish Saturday’s play with a split at the Mary Nutter Classic, after a 9-1 morning loss to Boise State in Cathedral City.
In the opener, the Cardinal (7-6) fell victim to a five-run third inning and never recovered against Boise State (3-11). Stanford was held to four hits.
Stanford rebounded quickly in its game against NC State immediately following the conclusion of its loss against Boise State.
The Cardinal broke a 5-5 tie on Kayla Bonstrom’s RBI-single in the third, and blew the game open with a five-run fourth to take an 11-5 lead. Noll struck the biggest blow with a two-run single up the middle on a full-count, scoring pinch-hitter Lauren Frost, who walked, and Lauren Bertoy, who doubled.
Stanford lashed the Wolfpack (6-7) for nine combined hits from the second through fourth innings and had plenty more opportunities, stranding 13 baserunners. Eight different Cardinal players registered at least one hit and 10 recorded at least one RBI.
Carolyn Lee (3-3) picked up her second victory of the weekend in the circle, throwing her fifth complete game of the season and third in the past four games. Provided with plenty of run support, she held NC State to nine runs – seven earned – on 13 hits and three walks with a strikeout.
Stanford is 3-1 in the tournament and concludes play Sunday against San Diego State.
Wrestling
Redshirt junior Jim Wilson became the first three-time conference champion in school history as three Cardinal wrestlers won titles and Stanford finished fourth overall (100) at the 2016 Pac-12 Championships on Saturday in Wells Fargo Arena at Tempe, Ariz.
Punching their tickets to the NCAA Championships in New York City next month are Connor Schram (125 pounds), Joey McKenna (141 pounds), Wilson (165 pounds), Keaton Subjeck (174 pounds) and Nathan Butler (285 pounds).
Taking home the title at 125 pounds for the Cardinal was redshirt sophomore Connor Schram, who defeated seventh-ranked Ronnie Bresser of Oregon State in the finals. Tied 2-2 after double-overtime, Schram won on criteria with one second of riding time. Ranked 15th nationally, he becomes the 20th different Cardinal wrestler to win an individual conference championship.
Schram reached the finals with a 4-1 decision over Ares Carpio of Arizona State in the first round and a 5-4 decision over Boise State’s Rami Haddidin in the semifinals. The Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania native moves to 20-5 on the year and has automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships for the second straight season.
McKenna, ranked second in the nation at 141 pounds, became just the fifth Cardinal freshman to win a conference title, defeating CSU Bakersfield’s Ian Nickell, 6-1. McKenna reached the finals by pinning Boise State’s Josh Newberg in 6:36 in the first round and defeating Oregon State’s Jack Hathaway, 6-0, in the semifinals.
Women’s water polo
The fourth-ranked Stanford women’s water polo team swept a pair of games Saturday to open play at the UC Irvine Invitational.
The Cardinal downed Loyola Marymount, 13-5, and topped No. 5 UC Davis, 12-5, to reach Sunday’s semifinal match against top-ranked USC.
Madison Berggren likes facing the Lions, recording a hat trick in both games against them.
Stanford, up 3-2 at halftime, exploded for six goals in the third quarter to distance itself and secure the victory. The teams held each other for nearly four minutes coming out of the break before the Cardinal fired home six goals in the final 4:14 of the period.
Julia Hermann played all four quarters in the cage and made five saves.
Stanford scores five times in the first, four times in the second against the Aggies.
Jamie Neushul did most of the damage for Stanford with her second four-goal outing in the last six days. The junior All-American scored once in the first, once in the second and twice in the third to pace the Cardinal.
Hermann made six saves in three quarters of work in the cage. Anna Yelizarova came on in the fourth and made six saves of her own.
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics