The No. 5 Stanford water polo team (8-2) finished fifth in the MPSF Invitational on Sunday following three wins against ranked teams and a loss to No. 4 Pacific in the weekend tournament.
The fifth-seeded Cardinal tallied a season-high 20 goals in their first game of the three-day contest with a 20-6 decision over No. 18 San Jose State at Northgate High School on Friday. Senior driver Sam Pfeil led the team with 5 goals, three of which came in the third quarter.
On Saturday, junior Mitchell Mendoza hit two goals late in the second quarter to tie Pacific, 4-4, at halftime. The Tigers burst into the second half with three straight goals in the first two minutes to start pulling away from the Cardinal. A fourth-quarter goal by sophomore driver Blake Parrish to put Stanford within one point of Pacific proved to be too little, too late as the Cardinal fell to the Tigers, 9-8.
Later that afternoon, the team rebounded to beat No. 10 Pepperdine, 11-9. The Cardinal fought off an early four-score deficit with solid team play and late-game goals by junior Cody Smith and senior Justin Roberto to earn the squad a spot in the fifth-place match.
Junior Harrison Enright led Stanford with 3 goals in its final match of the weekend against No. 7 Long Beach State. The 8-6 win at Spieker Aquatics Complex at Berkeley capped the tournament for the Cardinal.
The team gets a week’s rest after a busy weekend with its next game at Santa Clara on Oct. 5.
Contact Tristan Vanech at tvanech ‘at’ stanford.edu.