The No. 4 Stanford men’s water polo team hits the road again Friday, this time to do battle with its nearby rival, the No. 11 Santa Clara Broncos. The game will take place at 6 p.m., under the lights at the Bronco’s home pool, Sullivan Aquatic Center.
The Broncos are one of the hottest teams in the nation right now, having won nine out of their past 10 contests to improve what was once a mediocre record (they stood at 8-8 through their first 16 games) to a very respectable 17-9.
Santa Clara is not in the same conference as Stanford, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), but is in the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA). The Broncos are 7-5 so far in WWPA league play, good for second place in the division behind only UC-Davis.
The Cardinal takes to the pool again after a nice weekend win against Pepperdine this past Sunday. The game was a blowout, as Stanford scored early and often and the defense was tight throughout; the Cardinal handily won by the score of 15-6.
Friday will represent the fourth straight road contest for the Cardinal. In fact, due to the oddities of the water polo schedule, which is tournament-heavy at the beginning of the season, through its first 14 games the Cardinal has only played once at home.
But that one game was an instant classic, as the Cardinal defeated the USC Trojans, a water polo powerhouse that hadn’t lost in 15 months. The Cardinal will be home for three of its next four games, starting Nov. 6 against Long Beach State.
Stanford has traditionally enjoyed a good deal of success in the pool against Santa Clara, having defeated the South Bay neighbors six times in the past four years, with the Cardinal having outscored the Broncos by a combined score of 89-28 over that stretch.
Stanford has recently played at a much more consistent level than it did during its somewhat up-and-down start. This fact has been due to the steady and excellent play of some of the team’s veteran leaders, mainly senior captain Sage Wright, junior driver Jacob Smith and junior goalie Brian Pingree.
These three players have elevated their games over the past few weeks, and they have the stats and accolades to back that statement up: Sage Wright has scored five goals in the past two games; Jacob Smith is fourth in the MPSF with a 2.21 goals-scored-per-game average; Pingree, on top of winning the MPSF player of the week honors for his vital role in Stanford’s upset of USC, is fourth in the MPSF with an average of 7.36 saves per game.
The Santa Clara Broncos, though, are no slouches when it comes to individual accomplishments, as their goalie, junior Michael Wishart, has just been named the WWPA player of the week.
Wishart anchors the defense for the Broncos, with offensive leadership responsibilities belonging to junior James Case, who has scored a prodigious 50 goals so far this season, including an astonishing five this past weekend against Air Force, and seniors Stephen Hobbs and Nick Poggeti, who have both chipped in with more than 30 goals each.
Friday’s game against Santa Clara is Stanford’s final non-conference contest of the year before a pivotal stretch of conference games to end the regular season.