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.
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.
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.
Stanford scored four unanswered goals to jump out to a 4-2 advantage at the half.
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.
Stanford continued to push offensively, scoring four of the final five goals, en route to the six-goal win.
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.
Senior Drew Holland posted nine saves in goal for the Cardinal, increasing his Stanford career record total to 876 stops.
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.
