IRVINE, Calif. – Senior Reid Chase scored three goals to lead No. 4 Stanford men's water polo to its ninth consecutive win, an 11-5 victory over No. 6 UC Irvine Sunday at Anteater Aquatics Complex in its regular-season road finale.
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Chase's third hat trick of the season led all scorers in the match. Fell seniors Connor Stapleton and Cody Smith joined Chase with multiple scores, each posting a pair of goals.
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The Cardinal (15-3) found itself in a two-goal deficit to the Anteaters (11-8) in the second quarter, before Chase scored a pair of goals within 25 seconds of each other to tie it up with six minutes remaining in the half.
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Stanford scored four unanswered goals to jump out to a 4-2 advantage at the half.
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UC Irvine got within one score, before the Cardinal responded with a three-goal run to stretch its advantage to 7-3 at the end of three quarters.
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Stanford continued to push offensively, scoring four of the final five goals, en route to the six-goal win. Â Â Â Â
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Freshman Ben Hallock scored one goal to continue his streak of at least one score in all 18 matches this season. Blake Parrish, Harrison Enright and Sam Pfeil also contributed a goal for the Cardinal in Sunday's win.
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Senior Drew Holland posted nine saves in goal for the Cardinal, increasing his Stanford career record total to 876 stops.
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Stanford returns home, where the Cardinal will play its next six games, beginning with a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation showdown with No. 3 UCLA next Saturday (Nov. 4) at 12:30 p.m. PT. The Cardinal will also host No. 2 California in the Big Splash on Thursday, Nov. 9, at 2:30 p.m. PT and No. 20 Santa Clara on Saturday, Nov. 11, at noon PT. The 2017 MPSF Tournament will be at Stanford Nov. 17-19.
