Courtesy: Stanford Athletics
"Stanford felt right at home, allowing the national championship to stay on The Farm.
Backed by a raucous crowd at Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford became the first host school to win an NCAA championship while defending its title with a 7-6 victory over UCLA on Sunday evening.
Kiley Neushul converted a penalty shot for the game-winner with 11 seconds remaining, as Stanford (25-2) captured its fourth NCAA crown in five years and fifth in school history. The NCAA title is also the 106th won by a Stanford team and extends the school's national-best streak of years with at least one NCAA championship to 39, dating back to 1976-77.
'I'm incredibly proud of this team and the effort they put in,' Stanford head coach John Tanner said. "They have been sensational throughout the year to put themselves in this position and they have responded every time. The fourth quarter was a crazy adventure and it felt like each time we would try to establish something in the front court we'd get an offensive foul and have to really work our way through the defense. We were 5-on-6 a lot and just holding even took a huge amount of energy. Today showed tons of perseverance and a lot of character."
The frantic final seconds began with a Gabby Stone save on a skip shot from Alys Williams with 40 seconds to go and the game tied, 6-6. UCLA's Emily Donohoe was whistled for an exclusion on the way down and the Cardinal called timeout with 34 ticks left in the game and 32 on the shot clock to set up its final play."
Read the rest of the article from Stanford Athletics here.
<script src="http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?embedCode=NpdmcwdTpMLZ3ckGiB6dbu3OxdLA7lGI&playerBrandingId=16eab05109764339bc728bf307df1825&width=695&deepLinkEmbedCode=NpdmcwdTpMLZ3ckGiB6dbu3OxdLA7lGI&height=417"></script>