Steffens delivers title for Cardinal

Late goal beats No. 1 UCLA for NCAA water polo crown

Maggie Steffens scored the game winner with nine seconds left and No. 2 Stanford won the program’s sixth NCAA championship with an 8-7 victory over No. 1 UCLA on Sunday.

The Cardinal has earned five of the last seven NCAA crowns and appeared in every national final since 2010. The win was also the 113th NCAA team title overall for the department, which tied Stanford with UCLA for the most all-time.

Knotted 7-7 with 30 seconds to go, Stanford (23-3) turned the ball over and the Bruins (24-2) called timeout to set up a play for the game’s final shot. But Steffens tipped a Bruin pass on the outside, and the Cardinal regained possession with 14 seconds left and used its final timeout.

With nine seconds left, Madison Berggren got the ball to Steffens, who rifled a rocket-shot to the top of the cage to clinch the championship. Maddie Musselman launched a desperation attempt for UCLA as the clock expired, but it was easily swatted away by Stanford goalkeeper Gabby Stone.

Stanford, which never trailed, went up 7-5 early in the fourth quarter when Steffens drew a pair of defenders and flipped the ball to Shannon Cleary. Cleary drove on goal and beat Carlee Kapana to the far post, but UCLA responded and pulled within one when a Maddie Musselman heave from deep skipped in.

Baseball

Junior left-hander Andrew Summerville nearly went the distance to help No. 10 Stanford rally for an 8-5 win at Cal.

Summerville was one out away from his first complete game, and the Cardinal (33-13, 15-8 Pac12) rallied from an early deficit for its 14th win in its last 15 games. The Cardinal also clinched a fourth straight Pac-12 series.

Stanford’s Mark Marquess became the fifth person to coach 2,500 NCAA games.

Cal (21-26, 12-14 Pac12) got the offense rolling early. Andrew Vaughn drove in the Bears’ first run with a double in the first inning, and a two-run single by Preston Grand Pre with two outs in the second pushed Cal’s advantage to 3-0.

Stanford rallied with three runs in the fourth, with the help of two Cal errors. The Bears responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning as Korey Lee scored on a wild pitch and Grand Pre had an RBI bunt single to put Cal back ahead 5-3.

Track and field

Cal junior Ashtyn Davis improved to a perfect 7 for 7 in 110-meter hurdles finals this season at the Pac-12 Championship in Eugene, Oregon. He ran a lifetime-best 13.50 seconds.

Davis, also a defensive back on the Cal football team, ran the fastest time in Saturday’s qualifying heats. In the final, he took a quick lead despite clipping the first two hurdles.

Stanford sophomore n Grant Fisher won the men’s 1,500 and became the ninth person in school history to win a men’s 1,500 or mile at an outdoor conference meet.