ANOTHER 20-WIN SEASON FOR THE CARDINAL: Playing in the most difficult conference in the nation, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), Stanford posted its third-straight 20-win season. The Cardinal completed the year with a 22-8 overall record (5-4 MPSF), finishing fifth in the MPSF Championships. It’s the ninth 20-win campaign in 14 years for head coach John Vargas.
THE FINAL POLLS: Stanford finished fifth in the final Collegiate Water Polo Association national poll. The Cardinal was in the top five of the national poll every week during the 2015 season.
VARGAS APPROACHES 300 CAREER VICTORIES: Stanford head coach John Vargas has amassed an impressive 290-89 career record over 14 seasons at the helm of the Cardinal. He has totaled nine 20-win seasons in his 14 years.
SCORING CHAMP: Senior Bret Bonanni completed his collegiate career as the Stanford and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation career scoring leader. He finished his career with 360 goals. The senior scored six goals against Long Beach State on Oct. 31 to pass Tony Azevedo’s (332 goals from 2001-04) mark. Bonanni scored 94 goals his senior season to become the only Cardinal in the history of the program to post multiple 90-goal seasons, achieving the feat three times. His 94 goals was the fourth-best in a season in school history. Bonanni holds three of the top four single-season totals in school history. He scored in 29 of Stanford’s 30 games with multiple goals in 25 contests as a senior. Bonanni posted a career-best nine goals against MIT to open the season, and scored at least four goals in a game in 11 contests his senior season.
ALL-TIME GREAT: Bret Bonanni not only became Stanford’s and the MPSF’s all-time scoring leader, he guided the Cardinal to 87 victories during his standout four-year career. Among Bonanni’s record-setting 360 career goals, were 95 career multiple-goal games and 68 career hat tricks. He is a two-time Peter J. Cutino Award finalist (2014, 2015), and a four-time Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-American, earning first team honors each of the last three seasons. Bonanni earned ACWPC Academic All-America laurels all four years as well, earning a spot on the CoSIDA Academic All-District Men’s At-Large Team.
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, 2015. Bonanni scored in each of Stanford’s final 21 games this past season. Bonanni netted multiple goals in 17 of his final 21 contests.
MPSF CHAMPIONSHIPS: Stanford rebounded from a 7-6 overtime loss to USC in its opening game of the MPSF Championships, with victories over Long Beach State (18-8) and UC Irvine (17-6) to finish fifth in the conference tournament.
SUSTAINED ACADEMIC SUCCESS: Men’s water polo was one of 14 Cardinal programs (10 women’s, 4 men’s) with scores of 1,000 for the multi-year rate, which measures data collected over a span of four academic years, beginning with 2011-12.
CHURNSIDE EARNSS NCAA POSTGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP: Senior BJ Churnside was one of four Stanford student-athletes awarded NCAA postgraduate scholarships after the fall season. A four-year member of the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-Academic Team, Churnside received the group’s highest honors as a member of the “Outstanding” group each of his final three years at Stanford. He completed his Cardinal career with 146 goals, after finishing fifth on the team with 25 goals his senior season. He received ACWPC All-America honors all four years with the Cardinal.
SIX NAMED TO ACWPC ALL-AMERICA TEAM: Bret Bonnani (First Team), BJ Churnside (Third Team), Adam Abdulhamid (Honorable Mention), Drew Holland (Honorable Mention), Jackson Kimbell (Honorable Mention), and Connor Stapleton (Honorable Mention) were each named Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches All-Americans.
TRIO HONORED BY MPSF: Seniors Bret Bonanni and BJ Churnside, and redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid earned All-MPSF honors. Bonanni earned first team laurels, while Churnside and Abdulhamid were honorable mention selections.
ACWPC HONORS 17 FOR ACADEMICS: Seventeen Stanford men’s water polo student-athletes were named to the 2015 Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-Academic Team. The 17 honorees was the most of any men’s water polo program in the nation this past season. Student-athletes eligible for the ACWPC All-Academic award must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.2 or higher. Athlete merit levels include "excellent" (3.2 to 3.4), "superior" 3.41 to 3.7 and "outstanding" 3.71 to 4.0.
Stanford’s team GPA was 3.42, fourth in the nation and tops among all MPSF squads.
Six members of the Cardinal were named to the “outstanding” list, including Adam Abdulhamid, BJ Churnside, Blake Parrish, Grant Sivesind, Marco Stanchi, and Adam Warmoth. Bret Bonanni, Griffin Bolan, Mitchell Mendoza, Justin Roberto and Spencer Rogers were honored on the “Superior” list. Harrison Enright, Oliver Lewis, Sam Pfeil, CJ Porter, Kyle Weikert and Grady Williams were each named to the “Excellent” group.
MPSF HONORS 15 AS SCHOLAR-ATHLETES: The MPSF honored 15 members of the Stanford men’s water polo team as Scholar-Athletes. Adam Abdulhamid, Griffin Bolan, Bret Bonanni, Reid Chase, BJ Churnside, Drew Holland, Jackson Kimbell, Mitchell Mendoza, Justin Roberto, Cody Smith, Sam Pfeil, Connor Stapleton, Kyle Weikert, Harrison Enright and Adam Warmoth were recognized for their combined work athletically and in the classroom.
ABDULHAMID 2014 TO 2015: Redshirt junior Adam Abdulhamid completed the season second on the team with 59 goals. The 59 goals in 30 games is 28 more than his 31 goals in 30 games in the 2014 season. Abdulhamid scored in 10 of Stanford’s final 12 games, totaling 19 goals over those 12 contests. Of the 24 games Abdulhamid scored in this past season, the redshirt junior registered multiple scores in 16 of those contests.
CHASING THE CAGE: After totaling 31 goals in his first two seasons (15 as a freshman, 16 as a sophomore), Reid Chase finished his junior season with 38 goals to rank third on the team in scoring. Chase has netted multiple goals in four of the final six games of the season.
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 on 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. The shutout of UC Irvine was only the second time during the regular 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.
For the season, the Cardinal junior recorded double-digit saves in 15 games. Holland, who finished his junior season with 264 saves and a 7.11 goals-against average, is just two saves shy of becoming Stanford’s all-time saves king. He enters his senior season in 2016 with 742 career saves, two back of Chris Aguilera (1994-98).
SMITH SCORING: Sophomore Cody Smith posted 14 goals in Stanford’s final 10 games. He recorded three scores in a game three times during the season, against Harvard (9/5), San Jose State (10/25) and Pepperdine (11/6). Smith finished the year tied for fifth on the team with Connor Stapleton with 27 goals.
FRESHMAN SCORING: Seven student-athletes saw their first action for the Cardinal this past season, totaling 86 goals on the year. Redshirt freshman Mitchell Mendoza led the group with 25 goals, while true freshman Blake Parrish recorded 22 scores.