PALO ALTO, Oct. 14. BACK in the '70s, a counter-culture Hollywood flick was dubbed "Who'll Stop the Rain?"<\/p>\n
Were it to be remade today, it'd probably be entitled: "Who'll stop the Cardinal?", specifically, Coach Dante Dettamenti's top-ranked Stanford Cardinal men's water polo team, which swept past defending NCAA Champ UCLA in the finals of the NorCal Tournament here today, 10-6.<\/p>\n
Led by star rookie red-shirt freshman Tony Azevado, who scored a pair of goals, and Peter Hudnut, who tossed in three, Stanford won the two-day tournament at its home pool Avery Aquatic Center in impressive fashion.<\/p>\n
Third overall went to third-ranked Pepeprdine with a thrilling 9-8 overtime win over USC. Cal took fourth off its 11-4 victory over last year's NCAA runner-up, U Cal Irvine.<\/p>\n
Stanford is now 10-zip on the season and a good bet to make it all the way into the NCAA finals the first weekend of December here at Avery.<\/p>\n
UCLA falls to 8-2, with both losses coming at the hands of the Cardinal — 10-6 in Westwood two weeks ago — and then again here today.<\/p>\n
However, neither defeat was in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play, which is significant in that the MPSF winner gets an automatic bye into the NCAA Final Four.<\/p>\n
But the way the top-ranked Cardinal is playing that matter may be entirely academic as Stanford simply has no weaknesses. With Azevado's scoring and defensive strengths plus a strong nucleus of veteran players surrounding the rookie, the Cardinal has an excellent chance of running the table the balance of the season.<\/p>\n
In the finale against UCLA, Azevado scored a couple of early goals as Stanford went up, 2-0. The Bruins came back to tie it, 2-2, at the end of the quarter. By halftime the outcome was still undecided as Stanford led, 4-3.<\/p>\n
However, Hudnot rifled home a pair of goals late in the third period to give Stanford a 7-4 advantage, and that was how the match ended.<\/p>\n
UCLA freshman Brett Orsmby, a talented driver who had scored a trio of goals in the earlier Cardinal game at UCLA, was held in check here today, scoring but once.<\/p>\n
Stanford reached the finals with an 8-6 win over Pepperdine, Azevado accounting for five goals. In Stanford's four wins over the two-day tournament Azevado, a member of the United States Olympic team at Sydney, scored 15 goals and now has 35 for the season — by far the leading scorer nationally.<\/p>\n
UCLA gets one last chance to thwart Stanford's bid for an undefeated season when it travels to Palo Alto two weeks from now (Oct. 27) in conjunction with the Bruin-Cardinal football game.<\/p>\n
Stanford's hopes for an undefeated season in football vanished amidst a 45-39 loss to still-unbeaten Washington State over the weekend but their polo team keeps flying high.<\/p>\n
However, if UCLA polo coach Adam Krikorian has one consoling thought it's this: last spring the Stanford women's water polo team was undefeated going into the inaugural NCAA Finals (at home) against UCLA — and had trounced the Bruins the previous weekend in Hawaii during the MPSF playoffs.<\/p>\n
But when the splashing stopped at Avery the second Sunday in May, UCLA emerged as national champions.<\/p>\n
— Bill Bell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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