LOS ANGELES – Junior Dylan Woodhead netted three goals to lead No. 3 Stanford men's water polo to a 9-7 victory over No. 2 UCLA Saturday and into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship match on Sunday at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
Stanford (19-2), the No. 1 seed in the tournament, now sets its sights on trying to bring its sixth MPSF Championship home to The Farm. The Cardinal, which has won the tournament title in 1994, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2014, will face California in Sunday's MPSF Championship match. The title game is scheduled for 1 p.m. at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center and will air on Pac-12 Networks.
Woodhead was the hero in Saturday's semifinal win over the Bruins (21-4). He matched his season-high with three goals, with his final score with 7:33 left in the contest proving to be the difference in the Cardinal win.
The Cardinal got goals from Woodhead and Ben Hallock to surge out to a 2-0 lead five minutes into the contest. Another score by Woodhead, coupled with goals from seniors Blake Parrish and Marco Stanchi stretched the Stanford advantage to 5-1 at the half.
UCLA stormed back with three goals from Nicolas Saveljic in a span of 3:24, and a score from Chasen Travisano soon after.
A second Hallock goal during the Bruin scoring flurry kept the Cardinal ahead by one (6-5). Fellow sophomore Tyler Abramson then rattled the cage in the final minute of the third to give Stanford a 7-5 advantage entering the final period.
Woodhead's third goal of the match open opened the scoring in the fourth and gave Stanford a three-goal advantage. UCLA was aggressive on the offensive end, looking to get back into it with a pair of scores in the period. Last week's hero, Bennett Williams, capped the scoring for Stanford and the Cardinal held off the Bruins for the 9-7 victory.
Stanford senior goalie Oliver Lewis finished with seven saves. His counterpart, Alex Wolf of UCLA, had 12 stops.
It was Stanford's second win over the Bruins this season. The Cardinal defeated UCLA, 8-7, on a Jackson Seybold score with one second remaining at Avery Aquatic on Oct. 13. Stanford lost to the Bruins Nov. 3 in Westwood.
