Water Polo Title Goes to UCLA

U.S. Olympian Coralie Simmons scored her second goal with 1:28 left as UCLA beat Stanford, 5-4, Sunday for the Bruins’ fifth national women’s water polo championship in six years.

It was the first year the NCAA has sponsored the national championship.

Robin Beauregard, Kelly Heuchan and Ashley Stachowski also scored for the Bruins (18-4), who beat Stanford for the first time in five tries this season.

Brenda Villa led Stanford (27-1) with two goals.

In the fourth quarter, the Cardinal tied it, 4-4, with 3:27 remaining on Margie Dingeldein’s goal with a six-on-five advantage.

Then Simmons, the tournament’s most valuable player, scored the final goal, when she got free alone in front of the goal.