Oct. 1, 2011
SoCal Tournament Central
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Fourth-ranked Stanford men's water polo advanced to the SoCal Tournament semifinals Saturday with wins over No. 14 Princeton and No. 5 Pepperdine at Long Beach State's Campus Pool.
The Cardinal (5-2) will take on No. 1 USC Saturday at 10:40 a.m. in Los Alamitos in a rematch of the NorCal Invitational semifinals.
Stanford cruised past Princeton, 14-3, in the morning contest, before squeezing by Pepperdine, 7-6, to clinch a semifinal spot.
Peter Sefotn, Forrest Watkins and Alex Bowen each scored four times on the day, with Sefton and Watkins netting hat tricks against Princeton and Bowen turning the trick against Pepperdine. Ian Gamble and Jacob Smith each scored twice on the day as well.
The day began against No. 14 Princeton. A five-goal first period gave the Cardinal and early advantage, while the defense, anchored by Pingree, helped put the game away by holding the Tigers scoreless in the second frame as Stanford built an 8-2 halftime lead.
Three goals in each of the next two periods helped the Cardinal put the game away and move on to the next round, where it would face No. 5 Pepperdine.
There, the two teams slugged it out in a back-and-forth contest in which neither team lead by more than one goal at any time. Stanford answered Pepperdine goals early in the contest as the teams went to the halftime break knotted at 3-3.
However, after Pepperdine took a 4-3 lead early in the third period, Bowen and Smith netted consecutive goals to put Stanford ahead 5-4. The Cardinal would not trail again the rest of the way, but it did have to fight off two Waves equalizers. The last time, Pepperdine tied things up at 6-6 with 3:46 to go but Sefton came through with the game-winner just 31 seconds later, and the Cardinal defense, led by Pingree, held on to sew up the victory.
Princeton - 2 0 1 0 = 3
Stanford - 5 3 3 3 = 14
Stanford Goal Scorers: Sefton 3, Watkins 3, Bowen 2, Gamble 2, Avery, Hoversten, Kent, Rudolph
Princeton Goal Scorers: Hoffenberg, Nelson, Weber
Goalie Saves: Pingree 5 (S); Dearborn 12 (P)
Pepperdine - 2 1 2 1 = 6
Stanford - 2 1 2 2 = 7
Stanford Goal Scorers: Bowen 3, Smith 2, Sefton, Watkins
Pepperdine Goal Scorers: Hamby 2, Milcovich 2, Castillo, DeTrane, Picone
Goalie Saves: Pingree 6 (S); Valics 5 (P)