LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The No. 6 Stanford men's water polo team opened up the 2016 MPSF Tournament Friday, splitting its two games against Penn State Behrend and No. 1 USC. The Cardinal defeated the Lions 17-1 before falling to USC 9-5 with hat tricks by Marco Stanchi, Spencer Rogers and Blake Parrish on the day.
The first game pitted the Cardinal (13-7) against the fifth-seeded Penn State Behrend Lions, where Stanford tore open the lead early on by jumping out to an 8-1 lead after the first quarter with Mitchell Mendoza netting two in the period. Stanford continued on its roll in the second quarter, adding four more goals by four different Cardinal to go into the half up 12-1.
Stanford came out in the third to add five more goals in the period, finishing hat tricks by Marco Stanchi and Spencer Rogers while goalie Andrew Chun shut out the Lions in the half to lead the Cardinal to a 17-1 win in Game 1 of the MPSF Championship.
Game two matched up the Cardinal with the top-ranked and seeded Trojans, with USC jumping out to an early 2-0 lead in the first. Oliver Lewis stepped up in goal to keep the Trojans at bay in the second, allowing only one additional goal as halfway through the match USC only held a 3-0 advantage.
The Cardinal came out of the break firing, adding back-to-back goals by Justin Roberto and Blake Parrish to make it 3-2. That was the closest the Cardinal was able to pull the score as USC rattled off four straight goals before Parrish added another at the close of the third to make it 7-3.
Two more by USC in the fourth cemented it, though Stanford fought back with a goal by Mitchell Mendoza and another to complete Blake Parrish's seventh hat trick of the season as the Cardinal fell 9-5.
Stanford will await its next opponent as it sets to play in the 11 a.m. game on Sunday. Possible opponents include California or Penn State Behrend.