STANFORD, Calif. – Current Cardinal Bret Bonanni and Jackson Kimbell, alumni Tony Azevdeo and Janson Wigo and 2015 graduate Alex Bowen helped the USA Water Polo Men’s National Team to a four-game sweep in its series with Serbia over the past week.
Team USA notched its first win over Serbia since the 2008 Olympics with a 12-10 victory at UC San Diego on Tuesday, June 2. It followed up that performance with a 9-5 win in Riverside on Thursday, June 4, am 11-10 win at El Toro High School in Lake Forest, California on Sunday, June 7 and capped off the run with a 14-13 triumph in Chicago on Tuesday, June 9.
Stanford was responsible for 20 of the United States’ 46 goals in the series. Bonanni led his nation in scoring, totaling 10 goals over the four games, including four in each of the first and last wins. Azevedo put home two goals in each of the first three games and Bowen rattled the cage once in each of the final three. Kimbell’s goal in the tournament closed out the first half in the June 7 victory.
Big win against Serbia tonight, now I'm on a flight back to Stanford for my last final #normalthings
— Alex Bowen (@Amazing_Brick) June 3, 2015
All five were also on the roster at the FINA Men’s Intercontinental Tournament in Newport Beach, California in early April. By virtue of its third-place finish at that event, Team USA qualified for the FINA World League Super Final which begins on June 23 in Bergamo, Italy.
Bonanni and Bowen tied for fifth in that qualifier in goals, each scoring 14, while Azevedo was 10th with 13. Azevedo also tied for third at the tournament in both assists (13) and points (26). The United States went 4-2 with wins over Japan (10-6), Argentina (19-8), Kazakhstan (17-11) and China (19-7) and losses to Canada (10-9) and Australia (17-16).
Bonanni concluded his junior season at Stanford with a conference-leading 96 goals, just one shy of the single-season school-record 97 he tallied a year ago. He will enter his senior year on The Farm with 266 career scores, just 66 shy of Azevedo’s Stanford and MPSF record (332). Bonanni is the only Cardinal in history to post multiple 90-goal seasons.
Kimbell, who was Stanford’s highest-scoring rookie as a freshman in 2013 (26 goals), tallied 14 during his sophomore season, including five multi-goal games and one hat trick.
Bowen earned his fourth ACWPC First Team All-America honor after another superb season, becoming the first four-time first teamer at Stanford since Azevedo (2001-04). The senior finished his time on The Farm with 253 career goals and leaves third all-time at Stanford and eighth in MPSF history. In 2014, he was second on the Cardinal with 65 scores, including 19 multi-goal games and 12 hat tricks.
Bowen will receive his degree in product design as part of Stanford's 124th Commencement Exercises this weekend.