WHAT’S AHEAD?: No. 4 Stanford (0-0) opens its 2015 season on the road at the Bruno Fall Classic. On Saturday, September 5, the Cardinal will play No. 19 MIT at noon PT and Harvard at 4 p.m. PT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The following day, the ball will drop three times for Stanford in Providence, Rhode Island with games against No. 19 Bucknell (6:15 a.m. PT), No. 17 St. Francis (8:45 a.m. PT) and No. 11 Brown (12:30 p.m. PT).
HOW TO FOLLOW: Both of Stanford’s Saturday games in Cambridge will be streamed via the Ivy League Digital Network as will the Cardinal’s final game at Brown on Sunday. The service usually has a pay wall, but the network is free this weekend.
A LOOK AT THE POLLS: Stanford, which finished third in the final Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Poll of 2014, opened up this year as the nation’s preseason No. 4 on August 26.
REWIND TO 2014: The 2014 Stanford men’s water polo program posted its highest win total since 1994 and won the Cardinal’s first MPSF Championship since 2004. It finished third at the NCAA Championships and has made back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time since it went five straight years from 2001 to 2005.
MPSF CHAMPS: Stanford earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship by virtue of claiming the MPSF tournament title. The Cardinal won the program’s fifth league championship, and first since 2004, with a 9-8 victory over tournament host Long Beach State. It also defeated Pepperdine (13-4) and USC (7-4) en route to the crown, which was added to the mantle alongside its trophies from 1994, 1998, 2001 and 2004. Stanford is the first of the conference’s northern brethren to win the title since Cal in 2006.
BEST SINCE: Stanford’s 26 wins were its most since the Cardinal went 27-1 and won a national championship in 1994. Stanford reached 20 wins for the 29th time in its history, the eighth time under John Vargas and for the second season in a row.
NCAA RECORD: Bret Bonanni emphatically finished his junior campaign with an eight-goal outing in the NCAA third-place game against UC San Diego on December 7. The eight scores were just one shy of the single-game record in the history of the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championship and his 11 total goals in La Jolla were the most in NCAA Championship history since Doug Munz scored 11 for Navy in 1994. The 11 goals were also new two-game NCAA Championship record since the tournament switched to a four-team format in 1995. Ivan Babic (USC; 2000) and Balazs Erdelyi (Pacific; 2013) held the previous two-game record of nine.
ON PACE: Bonanni concluded his junior season with a conference-leading 96 goals, just one shy of the single-season school-record 97 he tallied a year ago. He enters his senior year on The Farm with 266 career scores, just 66 shy of Tony Azevedo’s Stanford and MPSF record (332). Bonanni is the only Cardinal in history to post multiple 90-goal seasons.
OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT: Stanford scored at least 20 goals 11 times last season. In the previous decade (2004-13), the Cardinal reached that mark in a single game on 12 total occasions. Stanford has scored 422 total goals in 2014. Last season was the only time in the past decade Stanford totaled more than 400 or averaged more than 12 per contest (413; 14.2/game).
WHAT’S BACK: The Cardinal, which welcomes back four of its top five goal scorers, also returns a trio of All-Americans in Bonanni, BJ Churnside, the 2014 NCAA Elite 89 award winner, and Drew Holland in the cage. Those three will lead a group that must replace All-Americans Alex Bowen, Conner Cleary and Nick Hoversten.
SEEING THE STATS: Stanford led the MPSF in goals per game in 2014 (15.10), ahead of UCLA (14.34) and USC (14.16), and was second in goals allowed per game (6.57), trailing the Bruins (5.47). Individually, Bret Bonanni’s 96 scores place him first in goals per game average (3.20). Alex Bowen was sixth (2.17), and Cody Smith and BJ Churnside were tied for 20th (1.50). Drew Holland’s 6.59 goals against average was second in the conference and his 10.47 saves per game were seventh.
GLOBETROTTERS: Bret Bonanni and Jackson Kimbell made appearances for the USA Men’s Senior National Team this summer at various events across the globe alongside alumni Tony Azevedo and Alex Bowen, including the FINA World League Super Final (Bergamo, Italy), the Pan American Games (Toronto, Canada) and the FINA World Championships (Kazan, Russia). On its way to gold at the Pan American Games, Team USA’s semifinal victory over Canada clinched a 2016 Olympic Games berth. Drew Holland and alum Janson Wigo were also on the United States roster for the FINA Men’s Intercontinental Tournament (Newport Beach, Calif.) in late March and early April. Holland and 2015 graduate Conner Cleary were also with the USA Men’s Senior National Team at the Volvo Cup in Budapest, Hungary in February along with Bonanni, Kimbell and Bowen.
