STANFORD, Calif. – Four Stanford men’s water polo players will represent the United States at the upcoming World League Super Final in Bergamo, Italy. USA Men’s Senior National Team head coach Dejan Udovicic announced the 13-man roster on Monday which includes current Cardinal Bret Bonanni and Jackson Kimbell along with alumni Alex Bowen ’15 and Tony Azevedo ’04.
Team USA is in Italy training ahead of the championship where they just completed a three-game exhibition series in Rome. Prior to that, Team USA completed a four game sweep of Serbia in an exhibition series held in the United States. The FINA World League Super Final begins on Tuesday, June 23 when the United States takes on that very same team from Serbia. Australia and Italy will round out group play with the medal round set for June 28.
The United States finished fifth at the 2014 World League Super Final in Dubai with help from Kimbell, Bowen and Bonanni. Bowen scored 13 times in the tournament last year while Bonanni added seven and Kimbell one. Bowen and Bonanni were also on the roster for the 2013 World League Super Final in Chelyabinsk, Russia where Team USA finished fourth.
Stanford was responsible for 20 of the United States’ 46 goals in the recently concluded series with Serbia. 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.
All four were also on the roster when the United States claimed third at the FINA Men’s Intercontinental Tournament in Newport Beach, California in early April to qualify for the FINA World League Super Final.
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).
In 2014, 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 received his degree in product design as part of Stanford's 124th Commencement Exercises this past weekend and last Thursday received the Biff Hoffman Award at the annual Stanford Athletic Board Awards ceremony, given to an outstanding male senior.