Back to the Weekly Home Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

Stanford women win gold medal

by Keith Peters

Amy Gardner, Dana Saign, Lindsey Bacolini and Molly Hayes spent Sunday night at a Dave Matthews concert in Orange County. As special as that was, what happened earlier the day was even better.

The four members of the Stanford Water Polo Club helped their team capture its first-ever championship in the Senior National Tournament with a 4-1 victory over previously undefeated SoCal at Capistrano Valley High.

The triumph capped three days of action, during which Stanford went 5-1-1 and wound up tossing coach Susan Ortwein into the pool.

"I got a little wet," Ortwein said of the dunking that goes with coaching teams to championships. "My shoes are still drying out."

Ortwein, however, doesn't have much time to dry things out. She'll be coaching the Stanford 18-under girls in the National Junior Olympics that begins Thursday in Southern California. Gardner, Saign and Hayes will be playing for Ortwein again - their third straight tournament.

The trio helped bring Stanford a fifth-place finish in the Junior Nationals that finished up last Thursday.

The Junior Olympics will have to be something really special, however, to top what the Stanford WPC women accomplished last weekend. Those attending the Dave Matthews concert even wore their gold medals.

"It was really exciting," Ortwein said. "It was our club's first title, which is pretty cool."

How Stanford went about winning the title was pretty cool, too. After defeating Golden West (6-2), romping past Navy (14-3) and swamping Sierra (12-2), Stanford rallied to deadlock defending champion New York AC, 6-6, after trailing by 5-2. That earned the local squad a berth opposite SoCal.

While Stanford dropped a 6-5 decision, perhaps the most important goal of the tournament for Ortwein's team was scored with just one second remaining by, of all people, Kristin Stanford.

That goal wound up being the determining factor in a tiebreaker with New York AC. After two other tiebreakers left Stanford tied with NYAC, the final one was goals scored against SoCal. NYAC scored four in a 5-4 loss, so Ortwein's team advanced to the semifinals thanks to Stanford's last-second tally.

Once in the semifinals, Stanford eliminated Oakland, 9-6, to set up a rematch with SoCal.

The difference in the championship match was Stanford's defense, which was keyed by 2002 Stanford University graduate Kate Pettit.

"She did a lot of defending for us," Ortwein said of Pettit. "That allowed others to be freed."

Both Erica Wilson and Laurel Champion were allowed a little more freedom on the defensive end thanks to Pettit's presence defending the hole set.

"That took a little pressure off Erica and Laurel," Ortwein explained. "At this level, it's all about matchups."

Wilson took advantage by scoring two goals, while Pettit and Lauren Faust added one each. The whole Stanford team, meanwhile, clamped down defensively on SoCal, which didn't get its lone goal until the 2:33 mark of the fourth quarter.

"We played really, really good defense," Ortwein said. "Jessie (Goldner) played great in goal. It was a team win. They all got credit."

Singled out individually, however, was Pettit, Faust and Champion. All were named first-team All-Americans. Champion received a similar honor while helping Stanford to its fifth place in the Junior Nationals last week.

Both teams finished with 5-1-1 records.

Other members of the Senior National team included Kristen Hoogenboom, Lindsey O'Farriell and Val Riss.
Junior Olympics

While there was a lot of success, no medals figure to be coming Stanford's way in the boys' National JO tournament in Southern California.

Through the weekend, none of the four Stanford club teams were headed for the medal rounds despite the fact most all had posted winning records.

The Stanford 18-under boys, for example, went 5-1 in their first six games. The key contest, however, was a 5-0 loss to Riverside that knocked Stanford out of the winners'-bracket quarterfinals.

Stanford reportedly needed to lose that match to Riverside by eight goal or more to advance with Riverside, which by moving into first place with the victory would have pulled Stanford along.

Stanford University men's coach John Vargas, who oversees the club program, reportedly was unhappy hearing about that decision and forfeited the match. Knocked into the consolation bracket, the 18-under team went on to beat Sacramento, 9-3, and then down East Bay, 8-4.

Sacred Heart Prep seniors Chris Wittam (the team's goalie) and Brandon Child have played well, along with Gunn grad Justin Wong.

The Stanford 16-under boys, who had high expectations of medaling, won their first four matches by a combined score of 39-12 before falling to Shore, 7-4, and then being tied by Carlsbad, 4-4.

The Stanford 14-under boys (A team) went 2-3 while the B squad was 1-3. The Stanford 12-under boys opened with a 9-5 win over Commerce, a 13-4 romp over SoCal B and then tied Santa Barbara, 7-7. Stanford then fell to ORCA, 7-4, and dropped a 13-3 match to TRAP A, before beating La Morinda, 7-6, on Monday.