May 7, 2003
San Francisco, Calif. - The Olympic Club of San Francisco announced today that three Cardinal athletes have been nominated for the 2003 Peter J. Cutino Award, presented to the outstanding male and female collegiate water polo player in the United States, as voted by the Division I coaches. Tony Azevedo, Stanford's leading scorer and 2002 recipient of the Cutino Award was nominated from the men's team while Jackie Frank, the Cardinal keeper and Division I Player of the Year in 2002, and Brenda Villa, the 2003 leading scorer and 2002 Cutino Award winner, were nominated from the women's team.
Azevedo set a new Stanford record last fall with 95 goals as Stanford claimed its second consecutive NCAA Championship. Azevedo, a 2000 Olympian, also led the team in scoring as a freshman and currently ranks tenth in school history with 163 goals in his career.
Frank has collected 179 saves this season - including a 22-save performance against UCLA in the MPSF Championship. The senior keeper has allowed only 58 goals in her 21 games for a 2.8 goals per game average as the Cardinal posted a 20-2 record and earned the top seed for this weekend's NCAA Championship.
On the offensive side, Villa leads the Cardinal is scoring this spring with 43 goals. She has 12 multi-goal games, including a six-goal outing against Pacific on March 30th and a four-goal performance against UC Santa Barbara in the Cardinal's opening round match of the MPSF Tournament. The 2000 Olympian has 172 goals in her career.
Also nominated from the men's side are Jeff Powers from UC Irvine and Jessie Smith from Pepperdine University and the third nominee from the women's side is Robin Beauregard from UCLA
The Cutino Award is given annually in honor of the former University of California, Berkeley and Olympic Club coach Peter J. Cutino. Cutino is in the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fameand was named Water Polo Coach of the Year 17 times while leading Cal to eight NCAA Championships. Cutino also coached in the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games, the Water Polo World Championships and the World University Games.
The winners will be announced at the Fourth Annual Peter J. Cutino Awards Night Dinner to be held Saturday June 14th, 2003 at the Olympic Clubs' City Club facility located at 524 Post St. in the Union Square area of San Francisco.