Coming off its biggest win of the year, the No. 4 Stanford men’s water polo team (7-4, 1-0 MPSF) will journey down to southern California this weekend to battle two familiar foes, UCLA and UC-Santa Barbara.
The Cardinal will be looking to build on the momentum from its defeat of top-ranked USC this past Saturday at Avery Aquatic Center. Saturday’s game saw the emergence of the Stanford defense, led by redshirt junior goalie Brian Pingree, as the deciding factor in the game. The defense will try to back up that effort against a UCLA team that is ranked No. 3 in the country and a UCSB squad ranked at No. 6.
The Bruins, whom the Cardinal visits today at 7 p.m., are ranked No. 3 by virtue of a stellar record (9-3, 1-1 MPSF) that includes a 10-9 defeat of the Cardinal at the neutral site of the NorCal Invitational Tournament on Sep. 19.
The Bruins will take to the pool on a bit of a cold streak, having lost two out of their last three matches, falling to USC and Cal over the past two weeks while only notching one victory over Pacific.
UCLA is led by the strong attacking of divers Ben Hohl, who has netted 22 goals, and Christiano Mirachi, who has 21 goals to his credit. The Bruins are also bolstered by the sturdy defense of their goalie, James Hartshorne, who leads the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) in saves per game with 11.
The weekend’s second game for the Cardinal, on Sunday at 12 p.m., is against UC-Santa Barbara. The Gauchos are sitting at No. 6 in the rankings, a spot occupied by the Cardinal last week, with a record of 9-4. Sunday marks the opening of the MPSF season for the Gauchos.
UCSB is coming off two wins against lesser opponents in the last week<\p>–<\p>Concordia and Harvard. The Gauchos have squared off against the Cardinal twice so far this season, in both the NorCal and SoCal Invitationals. The teams have split the two meetings, with each school winning in the tournament representing its half of California.
The Gauchos are led on offense by driver Milos Golic, who has scored 34 goals, and by goalie Myles Christian, who has held opponents to an impressive 6.73 goals against per game.
Stanford is 4-2 so far this season in games played in southern California. This will be the third of the Cardinal’s four trips down to the southern half of the state this season.
Both games this weekend are set to be matchups of star goalies, with Friday’s affair pitting reigning MPSF player of the week Pingree against Hartshorne, the conference’s leader statistically. Sunday sees Pingree being matched up with Christian, who is second in the MPSF in goals allowed per game.
Stanford’s win over USC this past Saturday has caused some ripples throughout the MPSF, including the Cardinal moving up two spots in the rankings, from sixth to fourth.
The Cardinal will take on UCLA this Friday at 7 p.m. in Westwood, Calif., then head to UC-Santa Barbara for a match on Sunday at noon.