Nov. 16, 2004

Woodland, Ca. - The Stanford men's water polo team, ranked second in the nation, has been seeded second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament, slated for Nov. 26-28 at the Avery Aquatic Center.

The MPSF Champion will be determined by an eight-team tournament. MPSF teams were seeded on the basis of their finish in conference round-robin play. Only the top eight teams qualified for the MPSF Tournament. The MPSF champion is an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Championship slated for Dec. 4-5 at Stanford.

Stanford finished the league season with a 7-1 record, one game behind regular season champion and top-ranked UCLA. The Bruins handed Stanford's only league loss, a 7-4 verdict on Oct. 30. Tony Azevedo scored all of Stanford's goals in the loss. Seven different Bruin players scored while UCLA goalkeeper Joe Axelrad collected 14 saves.

Stanford will begin MPSF tournament play on Nov. 26 against seventh-seed Pepperdine. This will the second meeting between the two teams. On Oct. 23, Stanford scored a 12-3 victory as Azevedo and Peter Varellas each scored three goals while Tyler Drake added a pair of scores.

MPSF First Round - Friday, November 26
Game 1 - 2:00 p.m. - #4 Long Beach State (15-10, 4-4 MPSF) vs #5 UC Irvine (14-11, 4-4 MPSF)
Game 2 - 3:30 p.m. - #3 USC (19-4, 5-3 MPSF) vs #6 California (18-8, 3-5 MPSF)
Game 3 - 5:00 p.m. - #2 Stanford (19-3, 7-1 MPSF) vs #7 Pepperdine (13-12, 3-5 MPSF)
Game 4 - 6:30 p.m. - #1 UCLA (21-2, 8-0 MPSF) vs #8 UC Santa Barbara (17-11, 2-6 MPSF)

MPSF Semifinals - Saturday, November 27
Game 5 - 2:00 p.m. - Losers Games 1 & 4
Game 6 - 3:30 p.m. - Losers Games 2 & 3
Game 7 - 5:00 p.m. - Winners Games 1 & 4
Game 8 - 6:30 p.m. - Winners Games 2 & 3

MPSF Finals - Sunday, November 28
Game 9 - Noon - 7th place: Losers Games 5 & 6
Game 10 - 1:30 p.m. - 5th place: Winners Games 5 & 6
Game 11 - 3:00 p.m. - 3rd place: Losers Games 7 & 8
Game 12 - 4:30 p.m. - 1st place: Winners Games 7 & 8 (televised live on CSTV)

For ticket information regarding the MPSF Tournament, call 1-800-STANFORD or purchase tickets at the east entrance of the Avery Aquatic Center on game days. An All-Session pass is available for adults at $25 while a student, senior and youth pass is available for $15. A daily pass for adults is $12 while a student, senior, or youth daily pass is $8.

Stanford will also host the NCAA Championship on Dec. 4-5. The semifinals on Dec. 4 are slated for 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The third place game on Dec. 5 will start at 12:30 p.m. with the championship game slated for 2:00 p.m.

On Saturday (11/20/04, 10:00 a.m.), Stanford travels to California for the annual Big Splash. This will be the second meeting in the last two weeks against the Golden Bears. On Nov. 13 at Stanford, Azevedo scored six goals to power Stanford to a 12-7 victory over the Golden Bears. Thomas Hopkins added three goals.

On Oct. 3, then top-ranked Stanford reached the championship game of the NorCal Tournament with a 12-7 victory over the fourth-ranked Golden Bears. Azevedo scored four goals while Greg Crum added a trio of scores and Matt Moser added a pair. The Cardinal jumped to a 3-2 first period lead, and extended it throughout the game, leading 8-4 at halftime, and 10-5 after three periods.

The Stanford-California game brings together two schools that have won a total of 21 NCAA championships. California has won eleven, while Stanford has won ten national titles.

Azevedo leads the team in scoring with 62 goals while Hopkins has 52. Peter Varellas has scored 44 goals, third-best on the team.

Stanford is 19-3 overall while the Golden Bears are 18-8.

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