WHAT’S NEXT: No. 5 Stanford continues MPSF play when the Cardinal hosts No. 6 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday (Oct. 24) at 4 p.m. at Avery Aquatic Center and travels to San Jose State on Sunday (Oct. 25) at noon. Saturday’s game against the Gauchos will begin 3.5 hours prior to kickoff of the Stanford-Washington football game on campus. Admission is free at Avery Aquatic Center.
Stanford looks to bounce back after four consecutive defeats to fellow teams in the top five - No. 2 USC, No. 4 California, No. 11 UCLA and No. 5 Pacific. Stanford last lost four straight games in the 2006 season.
UCSB and SAN JOSE STATE: UCSB enters the weekend with a 12-7 overall record. The Gauchos are 1-3 in the MPSF so far, splitting their two games last weekend with a 10-7 win over Long Beach State on the road and a 6-5 loss to USC at home. San Jose State is 3-15 this season with a 0-2 mark in the MPSF. The Spartans reinstated the men’s water polo program this season after a 34-year hiatus. Stanford and San Jose State have already faced each other once this season with the Cardinal posting a 20-5 win on Sept. 27.
A LOOK AT THE POLLS: The Cardinal moved to No. 5 in this week’s Collegiate Water Polo Association national poll, swapping places with Pacific following its defeat to the Tigers last Sunday. Stanford has been in the top five of the national poll every week this season.
CHASING THE RECORD: Senior Bret Bonanni enters this weekend just eight goals shy from tying Tony Azevedo’s Stanford and MPSF record of 332 from 2001-04. After concluding his junior season with a conference-leading 96 goals, he has a team-leading 58 goals in Stanford’s first 20 games. The senior recorded a career-best nine goals in the season-opening victory over MIT on Sept. 5. Bonanni is the only Cardinal in history to post multiple 90-goal seasons. He has scored in 19 of Stanford’s 20 games with multiple goals in 15 contests this season. Bonanni has recorded 85 career multiple goal games and 61 career hat tricks.
| Bonanni Chasing The Record | |
| Player | Goals |
| Tony Azevedo (2001-04) | 332 |
| Bret Bonanni (2012 – present) | 324 |
| Alex Bowen (2011-14) | 253 |
51 STRAIGHT: Bret Bonanni scored at least one goal in 51 straight games from Oct. 13, 2013 to Sept. 20, 2015. His streak was snapped when he was held scoreless in Stanford’s 6-5 victory over No. 2 USC in the semifinals of the NorCal Invitational.
FIRST QUARTER FURY: Stanford has out-scored its opponent by 50 goals (78-28) in the first quarter this season. The Cardinal has either led or tied its opponent after the first quarter in 15 of its 20 games this year.
MPSF LEADER: Senior Bret Bonanni (58) leads the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in scoring, averaging 2.90 goals per game.
Redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid (45) ranks fifth in the league, averaging 2.25 goals per game. Senior Drew Holland ranks fourth among regular starters in the MPSF in goals against average at 7.56.
As a team, Stanford ranks second in scoring (15.15 Goals/Game) and fourth in defense (allowing 6.75 Goals/Game).
ABDULHAMID SCORING: Redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid, who scored 14 goals in four wins at the Aggie Roundup Sept. 26-27, is second on the team with 45 for the season. The 45 goals in 20 games has already surpassed his 31 goals in 30 games during the 2014 season. Abdulhamid has scored a career-high five goals twice this season, in the season opener against MIT and Sept. 27 against Santa Clara.
MENDOZA STARTING STRONG: In his first season of action after redshirting as a true freshman last year, Mitchell Mendoza has scored at least one goal in 15 of Stanford’s 20 games. He ranks fourth on the team in scoring with 25 goals.
MOST GOALS SINCE: Stanford’s 29 goals against MIT on Sept. 5 were its most in a game in nearly three decades, matching the Cardinal’s 29 scores against Harvard in the Brown Invitational on Sept. 26, 1986.
NINE IN A ROW: Stanford’s eight wins to open the 2015 season, coupled with its victory over UCSD in the NCAA Third Place game to close the 2014 campaign, gave the Cardinal nine-straight wins. It’s the longest winning streak since Stanford won 11 consecutive contests during the 2013 season.
19 IN SIX: Stanford scored at least 19 goals in six straight games (first six games of the season) for the first time in the John Vargas era (dating back to 2002). The Cardinal posted 19 each against St. Francis Brooklyn and Brown, 20 against Bucknell, 21 against Harvard and a season-best 29 against MIT. The streak started with a 20-goal performance against UCSD in the NCAA third-place game on Dec. 7, 2014.
LAST TIME VS. SAN JOSE STATE: Stanford earned a 20-5 victory over San Jose State Sept. 27 in its final game in the Aggie Roundup on the UC Davis campus.
The Cardinal scored the first four goals of the game and never looked back in the win over the Spartans. It got four more goals in the second and third, capping the scoring barrage with eight in the fourth.
Redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid led the way with four goals, while senior BJ Churnside, junior Jackson Kimbell, and freshmen Marco Stanchi and Blake Parrish each contributed a pair of goals. Connor Stapleton, Cody Smith, Mitchell Mendoza, Justin Roberto, Spencer Rogers, Kyle Weikert, Bret Bonanni and Reid Chase added scores for the Cardinal in the win over San Jose State.