STANFORD, Calif. – The USA Water Polo Women’s National Team punched its ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games behind the play of four Cardinal at the recently concluded Olympic Qualification Tournament in Gouda, Netherlands.
Needing just a top-four finish to earn a berth in Rio, Stanford’s Makenzie Fischer, Kiley Neushul, Melissa Seidemann and Maggie Steffens led the United States to an undefeated 8-0 record at the event. Team USA outscored its opponents by a combined score of 123-35 and the Cardinal quartet accounted for nearly 50 percent of that scoring (57 combined goals).
Following group play wins over Japan (18-1), Canada (14-7), Spain (8-6), Greece (15-7) and South Africa (25-1), the United States clinched its spot in the Olympics with a 19-0 quarterfinal rout of France on March 26 in which Stanford’s contingent accounted for 12 goals. Fischer led the way with a team-high six, Steffens added four and Neushul and Seidemann each netted one.
The four combined for 10 of Team USA’s 13 goals in a 13-7 semifinal win over Spain, including hat tricks from Fischer, Neushul and Seidemann. Fischer (3), Neushul (2) and Steffens (1) accounted for more than half of their team’s scores in the 11-6 championship triumph over Italy on March 28.
Fischer scored multiple times in each of the eight games, including four hat tricks, and totaled 22 goals. Neushul had 17 and scored three or more three times, topping out with five in a 15-7 win over Greece on March 24. Steffens, the MVP of the 2012 Olympics, scored 13 and Seidemann, who won gold with Steffens at the 2012 Games in London, rattled the cage five times.
Fischer will be a freshman on The Farm in the fall and Steffens has one year of collegiate eligibility remaining. Seidemann graduated in 2013 following a season in which she won the Peter J. Cutino Award and was named the ACWPC Player of the Year. Neushul, a two-time Peter J. Cutino Award winner and three-time NCAA champion, wrapped up her Stanford career last May.
In the relatively short history of Olympic women’s water polo, Stanford alumnae have played a significant role in the fortunes of the United States Olympic Team since the first women’s tournament at the 2000 Sydney Games. Over the four women’s Olympic tournaments since 2000, Stanford boasts nine of its alumnae combining to make a total of 14 appearances for Team USA at the Olympics. Those Stanford Olympic alumnae have helped the United States become the only nation to medal in all four Olympic women’s water polo tournaments.
