SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Bret Bonanni scored four times and Jackson Kimbell, Nick Hoversten, Alex Bowen and Reid Chase all contributed multi-goal efforts as the No. 3 Stanford men’s water polo team earned a 13-6 MPSF road victory at No. 8 UC Santa Barbara on Sunday afternoon.
The victory capped another perfect weekend for the Cardinal and came on the heels of its 11-10 win over No. 1 USC on Saturday. Stanford is now 17-2 overall, a perfect 3-0 in conference play and continued its best start since winning 19 of its first 20 games in 2009.
Bonanni (7:19), Hoversten (6:43) and Bowen (6:02) staked Stanford to a 3-0 lead at the game’s outset. UCSB (9-8, 0-3) responded with a pair of its own, before Bowen closed the period with a man-up score with 0:11 until the buzzer.
As in the first, Bonanni started the Cardinal off on the right foot in the second quarter, scoring at 7:32 and 6:25 to grow his team’s lead to 6-2. Samer Alkateb briefly stemmed the tide for the Gauchos, but Reid Chase added an exclusion goal at 2:18 and an even-strength score with just 0:09 until intermission to help Stanford to an 8-3 lead at the half.
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13-6 win over Santa Barbara today at Campus Pool. Move to 3-0 in MPSF and will be back in action Friday at UCLA #GoStanford
Sunday marked Chase’s third multi-goal game of the season. He also scored twice each against Navy on Sept. 28 and Loyola Marymount on Oct. 11.
Bonanni again scored first coming out of the break at 6:37 in the third quarter and Jackson Kimbell rattled the cage with his first of two at 3:49, as Stanford led, 10-3. Another one-off goal for UCSB gave the Gauchos a brief respite until Kimbell put home his second late in the third (1:09). Hoversten added a power play goal early in the fourth (7:09) and handed Stanford its largest lead of the afternoon, 12-4.
Connor Stapleton closed the offensive blitz for Stanford with a goal at 2:48 in the fourth and the Cardinal won by the 13-6 final.
The Cardinal will next have its third meeting of the season with UCLA (19-2, 3-0) in Westwood on Friday, Oct. 24 at 4 p.m. in a match televised on the Pac-12 Networks. The two are tied atop the MPSF standings with 3-0 records and have split the previous two matches in 2014.
On Sunday, Sept. 21, No. 2 UCLA came out on top over No. 1 Stanford in the championship of the Kap7 NorCal Classic in Stockton, Calif., 9-7. The No. 2 Cardinal responded last weekend with a 7-6 victory over No. 1 UCLA in the third-place game at the SoCal Tournament in Los Angeles.
No. 3 Stanford at No. 8 UC Santa Barbara
Oct. 19, 2014 • Santa Barbara, Calif.
UCSB 2 – 1 – 1 – 2 = 6
STAN 4 – 4 – 3 – 2 = 13
UCSB Goals: Samer Alkateb 2, Chase Racich, Shane Hauschild, Bryan Snyder, Brendan McElroy
Stanford Goals: Bret Bonanni 4, Nick Hoversten 2, Jackson Kimbrell 2, Alex Bowen 2, Reid Chase 2, Connor Stapleton