By Alexa Philippou on September 5, 2016

No. 5 Stanford men’s water polo kicked its season off to an undefeated start, posting four double-digit victories over the weekend at the Triton and UCLA Invitationals, both in San Diego, California.

The Cardinal (4-0) dominated No. 9 UC San Diego (0-2), their only Division I opponent of the weekend, and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (0-2) on Saturday with 15-5 and 15-3 victories, respectively. Against UCSD, Cody Smith got Stanford on the board during the first 90 seconds of the game, after which the Cardinal would score another 5 unanswered goals. The run came to a halt with the Tritons’ first goal of the day with three minutes to play until halftime.

UCSD’s offense made minimal strides to chip away at the score in the third. While the Tritons scored 3 of their 5 goals in that quarter, it would not be enough to stop the bleeding: Stanford netted the ball 9 times in the second half alone, which ended with a 4-0 Stanford run in the final four minutes of the game.

Stanford’s defense shined on UCSD’s powerplays, as the Cardinal only allowed the Tritons to score a single goal off of their 10 extra-man opportunities. On the other end of the pool, Stanford took advantage of its own 10 powerplay opportunities, in which it scored 6 of its 15 goals.

Junior Oliver Lewis, the Cardinal’s new starter at goalie, ended the day with 11 saves and only 5 goals allowed. Fellow juniors Mitchell Mendoza and Smith combined for 6 of Stanford’s 15 goals, while freshman Bennett Williams notched 2 in his first career game with the Cardinal.

Stanford’s second match on Saturday was more of the same for the Cardinal, which jumped out to a 10-0 start — with Mendoza scoring 4 of those goals — before Claremont-Mudd-Scripps finally got on the board with 1:08 remaining in the third quarter. After the Stags narrowed Stanford’s lead to eight with 3:37 to play, Stanford scored four more goals to close the game with a 12-point victory.

The Cardinal completed the weekend sweep in San Diego on Sunday: Five Cardinal scored braces against Chapman, while Smith added 5 of his own, to lead Stanford in its 18-1 onslaught over the Panthers. Freshman goalie Andrew Chun notched 9 saves in his first collegiate match and another 8 against Redlands later in the afternoon. Against the Bulldogs, sophomore Blake Parrish led all scorers with 6 goals on the way to the Cardinal’s 15-4 win.

Stanford will return to the pool on Saturday, when it hosts No. 8 UC Irvine at 1 p.m. at Avery Aquatics Center.

Contact Alexa Philippou at aphil723 ‘at’ stanford.edu.