STANFORD, Calif. - Winners of four straight, No. 5 Stanford will conclude its regular season at home with three games at the Avery Aquatic Center. The Cardinal hosts No. 9 Pepperdine on Friday (Nov. 6) at 7 p.m., before a matchup with Santa Clara on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7 p.m. and the regular-season finale against California on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 1 p.m. The Cardinal is coming off a pair of wins last weekend over No. 8 Long Beach State (12-8) and No. 7 UC Irvine (7-0).
SCORING CHAMP: Senior Bret Bonanni is the new Stanford and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation career scoring leader. He scored six goals against Long Beach State on Oct. 31 to pass Tony Azevedo (332 goals from 2001-04). Bonanni added two more goals in the Nov. 1 victory over UC Irvine and enters Friday’s contest with Pepperdine with 339 career scores. After concluding his junior season with a conference-leading 96 goals, he has a team-leading 73 goals in 24 games this year. The senior recorded a career-best nine goals in the victory over MIT Sept. 5. Bonanni is the only Cardinal in history to post multiple 90-goal seasons.
He has scored in 23 of Stanford’s 24 games with multiple goals in 19 contests this season. Bonanni has recorded 89 career multiple goal games and 64 career hat tricks.
51 STRAIGHT: Bret Bonanni scored at least one goal in 51 straight games from Oct. 13, 2013 to Sept. 20, 2015. His streak was snapped when he was held scoreless in Stanford’s 6-5 victory over No. 2 USC in the semifinals of the NorCal Invitational on Sept. 20. Bonanni has scored in each of Stanford’s 16 games since. Bonani has netted multiple goals in 14 of the last 16 contests.
| Stanford’s Career Scoring Leaders | |
| Player | Goals |
| Bret Bonanni (2012 – present) | 339 |
| Tony Azevedo (2001-04) | 332 |
| Alex Bowen (2011-14) | 253 |
A LOOK AT THE POLLS: The Cardinal remained at No. 5 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association national poll for the third straight week. Its 81 points are six behind fourth-place USC and six more than sixth-place UC Santa Barbara. Stanford has been in the top five of the national poll every week this season.
| CWPA National Poll (Nov. 4) | |
| Team | Points |
| 1. UCLA | 100 |
| 2 (T). California | 91 |
| 2 (T). Pacific | 91 |
| 4. USC | 87 |
| 5. Stanford | 81 |
CATCHING THE WAVES: Of the nine other teams in the MPSF, Pepperdine is the only team the Cardinal has yet to face this year. Both schools played in the NorCal or SoCal Invitational, but did not meet each other.
LAST TIME VS. PEPPERDINE: Stanford last faced Pepperdine during the 2014 season, posting identical 13-4 victories in its two meetings with the Waves. Both of those matchups took place in Southern California. The Cardinal defeated Pepperdine in Malibu on Oct. 26 and earned the victory over the Waves in the first round of the MPSF Tournament in Long Beach Nov. 21.Senior Bret Bonanni has scored at least one goal in all five of his meetings with Pepperdine, totaling 11 scores. Fellow senior B.J. Churnside has scored in four of those contests, totaling seven goals. Junior goalie Drew Holland has posted 33 saves in three appearances in the cage against Pepperdine, including 19 stops in the Oct. 26, 2014 contest in Malibu, Calif.
MPSF LEADER: Senior Bret Bonanni (73) leads the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in scoring, averaging 3.04 goals per game. Redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid (50) ranks seventh in the league, averaging 2.08 goals per game. Senior Drew Holland ranks fourth in the MPSF in goals against average at 7.25. As a team, Stanford ranks second in scoring (14.54 Goals/Game) and third in defense (allowing 6.46 Goals/Game).
RECORD-SETTING DAY FOR HOLLAND: Drew Holland registered an MPSF single-game record 23 saves in No. 5 Stanford’s 7-0 shutout of No. 7 UC Irvine Nov. 1. The Cardinal junior totaled 36 saves for the week, also posting 13 stops in the 12-8 victory over No. 8 Long Beach State on Oct. 31 to earn MPSF Player of the Week honors on Nov. 2.
Holland’s previous high single-game save total was 20 against USC on Oct. 18, 2014. The Cardinal junior has recorded double-digit saves in 11 games this season.The shutout of UC Irvine was only the second time this season an MPSF team was held scoreless (UCLA defeated San Jose State, 10-0, on Oct. 18). Prior to Nov. 1, UC Irvine had not been held scoreless in a game since at least 2002.
FIRST AND FINAL QUARTER FURY: Stanford has out-scored its opponent by 53 goals (88-35) in the first quarter and by 54 goals (86-32) in the fourth quarter this season. The Cardinal has either led or tied its opponent after the first quarter in 19 of its 24 games this year.
SMITH SCORING: Sophomore Cody Smith has posted six goals in Stanford’s last four games. He has recorded three scores in a game twice this season, against Harvard (9/5) and against San Jose State (10/24).
ABDULHAMID 2014 TO 2015: Redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid is second on the team with 50 goals for the season. The 50 goals in 23 games is 19 more than his 31 goals in 30 games during the 2014 season. Abdulhamid has scored in five of Stanford’s last six games, totaling 10 goals over those six contests. He has scored a career-high five goals twice this season, in the season opener against MIT and Sept. 27 against Santa Clara. Of the 20 games Abdulhamid has scored in this season, the redshirt junior has registered multiple scores in 13 of those contests.
MOST GOALS SINCE: Stanford’s 29 goals against MIT on Sept. 5 were its most in a game in nearly three decades, matching the Cardinal’s 29 scores against Harvard in the Brown Invitational on Sept. 26, 1986.
FRESHMAN SCORING: Seven student-athletes have seen their first action for the Cardinal this season, totaling 70 goals on the year. Redshirt freshman Mitchell Mendoza leads the group with 25 goals, while true freshman Blake Parrish has recorded 15 scores.