STOCKTON, CA., Nov. 3. MAYBE Coach Dante Dettamanti's No. 1-ranked Stanford men's water polo team has begun believing in its own "invincibility." Or perhaps the Cardinal just took the University of Pacific's Tigers a tad too lightly.<\/p>\n
In either case, Stanford stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to down, UOP, 10-7, here this afternoon in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matchup.<\/p>\n
Stanford is now 15-0 overall, 7-zip in MPSF play, and travels to Davis this afternoon to take on the U Cal Davis Aggies. UOP is 5-11 overall, 0-7 in the MPSF.<\/p>\n
Pacific scored on its first possession as Jared Pendergrass blasted a winner home past Card goalie Nick Ellis. Then a moment later UOP went up 2-0 as
\nNick Hepner grabbed an errant Cardinal pass and outletted it to Brady Norvall for a breakaway goal. Then Hepner rifled hom a shot from seven meters out and Stanford was on the wrongend of a 3-0 count.<\/p>\n
However, the Cardinal answered with four-consecutive goals, including a a pair by freshman Olympian Tony Azevedo.<\/p>\n
UOP tied the score at 4 with 3:45 remaining in the first half but that was the Tigers' last hurrah. Stanford wemt on a 5-0 run and led 8-5 with 4:01 to play in the final quarter.<\/p>\n
Azevedo and teammate Jeff Nesmeth, along with the Tigers' Pendergrass, tied for scoring honors with three each. Azevedo now has 49 goals and is the
\ncountry's top scorer.<\/p>\n
* * * * *<\/p>\n
After losing to Stanford a week ago in Palo Alto for the third time this season, No. 2-ranked UCLA defeated No. 3 Pepperdine, 8-7, this afternoon at the loser's Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool.<\/p>\n
The win gave UCLA a 10-3 overall record, 5-1 in MPSF play. Pepperdine is 12-3, 4-2.<\/p>\n
The Bruins, double-defending NCAA Champs, were led by freshman driver Brett Ormsby, who scored three goals, including the match's final two. Senior teammate Jeff Pflueger tossed in a pair of goals and dished out a pair of assists, while Bruin junior Matt Flesher added a goal and three assists.<\/p>\n
Pepperdine led at halftime, 5-4, on the strength of Jesse Smith's three goals.<\/p>\n
However, in the third quarter the contest became a defensive struggle, as both teams accounted for only a goal apiece — Pfuleger for UCLA and Vedran
\nKaluderovic for the Waves.<\/p>\n
In the final quarter UCLA's Dan Yeilding tied the match at 6-6 with 4:38 remaining. Then Pepperdine went ahead, 7-6, on an extra-man tally from Jeremy Grubbs with 2:42 remaining — the fifth time the Waves had led.<\/p>\n
However, the Bruins were not to be denied as Orsmby, UCLA's leading scorer, connected on a power play with 1:15 remaining to tie the count at 7. The Waves' next shot was stopped by Bruin goalie Brandon Brooks and the visitors then launched their counterattack.<\/p>\n
Brooks led soph Alberto Garcia ahead with a long pass down the right side of the pool. Garcia then hit Ormsby with a nice lob over the outstretched arms of several Pepperdinew defenders, andthe rookie geat Wave goalie Michael Soltis with a skip shot to the short side with 39 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
Pepperdine missed a chance to tie when Grubbs' shot from five meters hit the crossbar and squirted out of bounds with eight seconds left.<\/p>\n
The Bruins had five shots hit the goal and bounce back while Pepperdine had four.<\/p>\n
Brooks wound up with 10 saves while Soltis had nine stops.<\/p>\n
UCLA faces 10th-ranked U Cal Santa Barbara at noon today and a victory would give UCLA the No. 2 seed in the MPSF tournament — qualifier for the NCAA Finals.<\/p>\n
— Bill Bell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STOCKTON, CA., Nov. 3. MAYBE Coach Dante Dettamanti's No. 1-ranked Stanford men's water polo team has begun believing in its own "invincibility." Or perhaps the Cardinal just took the University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[18743,18740,4936,18745,4368,17232,18739,18741,11205,14770,185,18744,1190,1151,410,18750,17811,4170,18748,13165,4625,18742,1168,251,4234,18747,18746,1273,18738,327,18749,18752,350,3671,61,1827,18737,18751],"class_list":["post-2981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-alberto-garcia","tag-andthe-rookie-geat-wave-goalie","tag-bill-bell","tag-brady-norvall","tag-brandon-brooks","tag-brett-ormsby","tag-bruin-goalie","tag-cal-davis-aggies","tag-cal-santa-barbara","tag-card-goalie","tag-coach","tag-dan-yeilding","tag-dante-dettamanti","tag-driver","tag-goalie","tag-jared-pendergrass","tag-jeff-nesmeth","tag-jeff-pflueger","tag-jeremy-grubbs","tag-jesse-smith","tag-matt-flesher","tag-michael-soltis","tag-mountain-pacific-sports-federation","tag-ncaa","tag-nick-ellis","tag-nick-hepner","tag-olympian-tony-azevedo","tag-palo-alto","tag-qualifier-for-the-ncaa-finals","tag-stanford","tag-stanford-gets","tag-stockton","tag-the-ncaa","tag-tony-azevedo","tag-ucla","tag-university-of-pacific","tag-university-of-pacifics-tigers","tag-vedran-kaluderovic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n