LOS ANGELES, Calif. - No. 2 Stanford rallied for a 152-148 victory over No. 7 USC on Saturday afternoon, sweeping its SoCal weekend road swing.
The Cardinal (6-0, 6-0 Pac-12) clinched the meet with a second-place finish in the 400-yard free relay. Stanford handed USC (7-2, 5-1 Pac-12) its first conference loss of the season and remains unbeaten in the series with the Trojans since 1996.
"I'm really proud of how the team battled," head coach Greg Meehan said of the road victory. "We haven't had a come-from-behind win in a long time, and it was nice to see our resilience. Speedo Ally (Howe), Sarah Haase, Janet Hu and Alex Clay were awesome today."
Howe, Haase and Hu combined with Lia Neal to win the opening event for the Cardinal as the foursome finished the 200-yard medley relay in 1:38.53.
Neal and Haase went on to claim Stanford's first individual victories with wins in the 200 free (1:45.87) and 100 breast (1:00.93), respectively.
Neal followed that up with a win in the 100 free (48.36) just after freshman Ella Eastin topped the field in the 200 fly with a time of 1:56.39. It was the first of two wins on the afternoon for the rookie. Eastin also came up with a huge win in the final individual event of the day to give the Cardinal the edge heading into the last relay. She tapped the wall at 1:58.30 to hold off a pair of Trojans in the 200 individual medley.
Senior Alex Clay swept the diving events for some crucial points in this Pac-12 showdown. She won the 1-meter event over teammate Gracia Leydon-Mahoney with a score of 300.38, and then garnered another nine points with the top score of 315.45 in the 3-meter.
Hu was also a double-winner in the second half of the meet. She started with a winning effort in the 200 back (1:54.62), and out-touched the Trojans in the 100 fly at 53.33.
Haase swept the breaststroke events with a victory in the 200 as well (2:12.25).
Stanford hosts Pac-12 rival and third-ranked Cal on Saturday, Feb. 13 at noon at the Avery Aquatics Center.
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