Oct. 21, 2001
Santa Barbara, Ca - After two quick goals in the second quarter pulling tenth-ranked UC Santa Barbara within one goal of tying top-ranked Stanford, 5-4, an upset seemed to be in the making. But the Cardinal water polo team is #1 for a reason and came alive in the third quarter scoring three straight goals to put any thoughts of an upset to rest.
Stanford won by a final score of 9-5 on Sunday in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game at the UCSB Campus Pool.
Stanford improves to 12-0 overall and 5-0 in MPSF action. UCSB fell to 6-7 overall and 2-4 in league play.
Stanford reached the scoreboard twice in the first period on goals by Jeff Nesmith and Brian Darrow. A Gaucho goal left the score at 2-1 after one period of play.
Stanford then extended its lead to 4-1 in the second period on goals by Peter Hudnut and Onno Koelman. However, UC Santa Barbara then scored twice to cut the Cardinal lead to one goal, 4-3.
After trading goals to start the third quarter to make the score 5-4, Stanford's defense came to life stealing the ball away from the Gauchos three straight times and scoring three times to take a 8-4 lead. Pasi Dutton started the scoring barrage followed with two scores from freshman Tony Azevedo. Azevedo now has a team-leading 40 goals.
Each team added a goal in the final period.
Nick Ellis collected eight saves for the Cardinal, who return to the Avery Aquatic Center on Wednesday (Oct. 24) at 7:00 p.m. against Pacific.
Stanford (12-0, 5-0 MPSF)2241=9 UC Santa Barbara (6-7, 2-4 MPSF)1211=5 Stanford scorers: Azevedo 2, Dutton 2, Hudnut 2, Nesmith 1, Darrow 1, Koelman 1 UCSB scorers: Schoneberger 1, Coughlan 1, Treman 1, Welch 1, Pacelli 1 Goalie saves: Ellis (S) 8, Spence (UCSB) 7