The Tritons' seventh-place finish is their best in program history since the NCAA declared women's water polo to be a championship sport in 2001. UCSD finishes the year at 18-20, matching its win total of 2010. It is the first win in the program's history at the NCAA Championships.

Lizotte's five scores are a season-high for the Tritons. She led UCSD in scoring during the tournament, finishing with nine goals over the three days at the Championships. Kirsten Bates, who was named to the All-Tournament Second Team, registered a hat trick against the Gaels on Sunday -- her second of the tournament -- and finished behind Lizotte with seven scores. Hanalei Crowell scored twice in Sunday's seventh-place match, her second multiple-goal performance of the tournament.

The Gaels took a two-goal lead with 3:36 remaining in the opening period, but Lizotte responded with three goals in the next two minutes to tie the score at 3-3. Lizotte continued her scoring streak in the second period, matching Iona for a pair of goals to tie the game at 5-5 with 4:24 remaining in the half. After Amy Olson gave the Gaels another one-goal lead, finally someone other than Lizotte got on the scoreboard, as Jessica Tran made it 6-6 just before the halftime whistle.

"We didn't know a lot about Iona and really used the first half to get a feel for who they were," said UCSD head coach Brad Kreutzkamp. "In the second half we were able to adjust, take away what they wanted to do and outscore them, 9-3."

Bates and Tran traded goals with the Gaels to open the second frame before Felicia Orozco gave the Tritons their first lead of the match, 9-8, with 2:08 remaining in the third. Crowell extended the lead to two on a 10-meter rocket from the right flank and then gave the Tritons an 11-8 lead with 6:23 remaining in the fourth period.

Bates added two more to give the Tritons a 13-8 lead. Kim McComas got into the scoring act, netting just her sixth goal of the season with 1:30 left in the contest. The Gaels added a final score before Natalie Peng capped off the match with a goal to make it 15-9.

"I think this weekend has given our program an infusion of energy and confidence. Winning is addictive and I could see in their eyes that they're going to be hungry to do this again," said Kreutzkamp.

UCSD was able to subdue the nation's leading scorer, Maggie Wood, who came into the match averaging 4.4 goals a game. Wood scored just a single goal in the match.

National Champion: Stanford
Runner-Up: California
3rd Place: UCLA
4th Place: USC
5th Place: UC Irvine
6th Place: Indiana
7th Place: UCSD
8th Place: Iona

Tournament MVP: Anika Dries, Stanford

First Team
Amber Oland, Stanford
Annika Dries, Stanford
Emily Csikos, Cal
Kim Krueger, Stanford
Patricia Jancso, USC
Melissa Seidemann, Stanford
Dana Ochsner, Cal
Priscilla Orozco, UCLA

Second Team
Stephane Peckham, Cal
Jakie Kohli, Indiana
Joelle Bekhazi, USC
KK Clark, UCLA
Cortney Collyer, UC Irvine
Jessy Cardey, UC Irvine
Maggie Wood, Iona
Kelly Easterday, UCLA
Kirsten Bates, UCSD