Nov. 1, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. - Third-ranked Stanford men's water polo breaks from MPSF play this weekend, instead traveling to a pair of non-conference opponents. The Cardinal visits No. 16 UC Davis Saturday then heads to the South Bay to take on No. 19 Santa Clara Sunday, with both contests set for 12 p.m. starts.

Stanford (12-4) improved to 4-2 in the highly-competitive MPSF last weekend with a sweep of UC Irvine and Long Beach State. Freshman driver Bret Bonanni was named MPSF/KAP 7 Player of the Week for the second time this season after scoring 12 goals over the two wins. Bonanni is currently on a scoring run in which he has scored 35 goals over Stanford's past seven games.

Sophomore Alex Bowen scored six times, including the game winner, in Sunday's win over Long Beach State. Bowen increased his season total to 42 with Sunday's performance.

The defense, led by Forrest Watkins, Conner Cleary, Nick Hoversten and Andrew LaForge, among others, limited the Anteaters to just four goals Saturday before coming up big with key last-minute stands Sunday to preserve the one-goal win over the 49ers.

Goalie Scott Platshon made 19 saves over the weekend, including 11 in Saturday's shutdown of UC Irvine.

UC Davis (12-14) has dropped seven of its past eight decisions heading into Saturday. The Aggies are led by the scoring of Chris Richardson (54 goals) and Trevor Allen (41) while in the cage Tony Dito averages 8.4 saves per game.

Santa Clara (9-16) has dropped nine of its past 11 heading into the weekend. The Broncos are led by the scoring of Tucker Carlson (37 goals) and Jimmy Moore (21) while in the cage goalie John Nash has made 108 saves on the year.

Stanford returns to MPSF play next Friday, Nov. 9 at UCLA.