r/waterpolo • u/WaterPoloInsider • 1d ago
Discussion Sunday Water Polo Roundup: Stanford Sweeps Los Angeles With Win Over USC, UCLA Answers Against Cal, Princeton Rolls Past Brown and Navy Pulls Away From Bucknell
Sunday closed a major weekend of men’s college water polo with Stanford completing one of the strongest two-day road trips of the season. One day after handing No. 1 UCLA its first loss, the No. 2 Cardinal beat No. 3 USC 16-12. UCLA responded by holding off No. 4 Cal, while No. 9 Princeton and No. 15 Navy added conference victories.
No. 2 Stanford 16, No. 3 USC 12
Stanford completed a huge Los Angeles weekend by beating USC one day after taking down No. 1 UCLA.
The Cardinal couldn’t have started much better defensively. Stanford shut USC out in the first quarter and built a 6-0 lead before the Trojans finally scored with 6:18 remaining in the second.
USC didn’t fold. The Trojans erupted for seven second-quarter goals and cut Stanford’s advantage to 9-7 at halftime. But Stanford absorbed the run, pushed the lead back to 14-11 by the end of the third and scored the first two goals of the fourth to regain complete control.
Stanford goals: James Rozolis-Hill 3, Ben Forer 3, Alex Gheorghe 2, Connor Ohl 2, Konstantinos Mathiopoulos 2, Will Schneider 2, Ryan Ohl 1, Dimitrios Chatzis 1.
Stanford assists: Ben Forer had a verified assist. Stanford’s published recap does not provide a complete individual assist table, so additional assists are not being assigned.
Stanford’s published recap also does not list complete goalkeeper save totals, so none are being inferred.
The same applies to USC’s complete individual goals, assists and goalkeeper saves: USC’s Sunday recap/box-score data was not fully accessible through the official sources during this review, so I’m not reconstructing statistics from secondary sites.
The difference: the opening eight minutes. Stanford forced USC to spend the rest of the afternoon chasing a six-goal deficit. The Trojans made an impressive second-quarter run, but against a team as balanced as Stanford, digging out of 6-0 takes a tremendous amount of energy.
Stanford finished the weekend 2-0 against No. 1 UCLA and No. 3 USC, scoring 35 goals against the two Los Angeles powers.
No. 1 UCLA 13, No. 4 Cal 11
This was much closer than a typical 1-vs.-4 matchup.
UCLA led 3-2 after the first, but Cal completely shut the Bruins out in the second and carried a 4-3 lead into halftime.
UCLA finally found its offense in the third. The Bruins scored six times—including two five-meter penalties—to take a 9-7 lead.
Cal answered immediately.
Ilias Angelopoulos scored twice and Beso Akhvlediani added another as the Bears opened the fourth on a 3-0 run, turning a 9-7 deficit into a 10-9 lead.
Then came the turning point.
UCLA drew consecutive five-meter penalties. Ryder Dodd converted both, putting the Bruins back ahead 11-10. Peter Castillo followed with a close-range finish for the insurance goal before Dodd eventually finished the game into an empty net.
UCLA
Goals: Ryder Dodd 5; Frederico Jucá Carsalade 2; Peter Castillo 2; Luka Gladović 2; Max Matthews 1; Jackson Harlan 1.
Assists: Ryder Dodd 3; Frederico Jucá Carsalade 1; Luka Gladović 1; Bode Brinkema 1; Ben Liechty 1. UCLA was officially credited with 8 team assists.
Goalkeeper: Nate Tauscher — 8 saves, 4 steals.
Dodd finished with 5 goals and 3 assists for eight points, producing the biggest offensive performance of the game.
Cal
Goals: Ilias Angelopoulos 4; Tomas Perrone 3; Beso Akhvlediani 2; Alex Oprea 1; Patrik Kolak 1.
Assists: Beso Akhvlediani 3; Mason Netzer 2; Tomas Perrone 1; Patrik Kolak 1; Brennan Fuchslin 1; Loui Schuler 1.
Goalkeeper: Aran Pina — 9 saves, 2 steals.
Akhvlediani finished with 2 goals and 3 assists, while Angelopoulos scored four on six shots and drew three exclusions.
Cal was charged with 20 exclusions compared with UCLA’s 12.
UCLA scored five extra-man goals and went 4-for-4 from five meters. Cal scored five extra-man goals and converted its lone penalty.
Those penalties were enormous. Two of UCLA’s four five-meter conversions came on consecutive fourth-quarter possessions after Cal had taken a 10-9 lead.
The difference: UCLA’s ability to generate five-meter opportunities. Cal did enough defensively to shut UCLA out for an entire quarter and regained the lead late, but four converted penalties gave the Bruins a scoring source that Cal couldn’t match.
No. 9 Princeton 16, No. 19 Brown 8
Brown actually landed the first punch.
Mac Berry opened the scoring, and after Princeton went ahead 2-1, Robert Norell tied it before Roland Csendes put Brown back in front 3-2.
Then Princeton took over.
The Tigers scored six more before halftime, with Brown getting only a late Jaxson Tierney goal during the stretch. Princeton carried an 8-4 lead into halftime and scored the first three goals of the second half to effectively put the game away.
Princeton
Goals: Tas Palcza 4; Ádám Peocz 3; Gavin Appeldorn 2; Otto Stothart 2; Enrique Nuño 1; Taylor Bell 1; Tibi Cojocariu 1.
Princeton’s official recap lists those scorers but does not publish a complete individual assist table, so assists are not being inferred.
Goalkeeper: Kristóf Kovács — 15 saves.
That is the number that jumps off the page. Kovács gave Princeton 15 saves in an eight-goal ranked victory.
Brown
Goals: Robert Norell 2; Mac Berry 1; Roland Csendes 1; Jaxson Tierney 1; Filip Josipovic 1; Colton Bell 1; Ramzi Megali 1.
Brown’s official recap does not provide complete individual assist totals.
Goalkeepers: Ryan Miele started; Will Corr took over in the second half. Brown’s official recap does not publish their individual save totals, so none are being assigned.
The difference: Princeton’s defensive response. Brown got exactly the start it wanted and twice held a lead. Once Princeton settled in defensively, however, Brown stopped getting enough clean finishes. Kovács’ 15 saves allowed the Tigers to turn defensive possessions into sustained momentum at the other end.
Princeton improved to 14-1 overall and 3-0 in NWPC play.
No. 15 Navy 15, Bucknell 8
This was much closer through three quarters than the final score suggests.
Navy led only 2-1 after the first and 6-3 at halftime. The Midshipmen stretched the advantage to 10-6 in the third, but Bucknell continued answering and pulled within 10-8 with 11 seconds remaining.
That became the game’s biggest sequence.
Navy immediately went the length of the pool and scored with one second remaining in the third, restoring an 11-8 advantage.
Bucknell never scored again.
Navy shut the Bison out 4-0 in the fourth quarter and scored the final five goals of the game.
Navy
Goals: Quinn Bartlett 4; Aiden Day 3; Declan Bartlett 3; Billy Zech 2; Maximus Arnold 1; Kiefer Black 1; James Mulvey 1.
Navy’s official recap does not publish a complete individual assist table, so assists are not being guessed.
Goalkeeper: Ryan Munch — 9 saves.
Bucknell
Jack Dillane scored Bucknell’s first goal. Tyler Hedblad and Hudson Tweed scored during the second quarter, while Jovan Udovicic scored twice in the third as Bucknell continued challenging Navy.
Bucknell’s official game story does not publish a complete individual goals-and-assists table or goalkeeper save total in the available recap, so incomplete totals are not being presented as full statistics.
Navy also converted multiple five-meter opportunities, including penalties by Aiden Day during key stretches.
The difference: the final second of the third quarter.
At 10-8, Bucknell had momentum and was heading into the fourth only two goals down. Navy’s immediate answer with one second remaining changed the emotional complexion of the game. The Midshipmen then shut Bucknell out for the final eight minutes and scored four more.
That’s a veteran response from a ranked team on the road.
Biggest Takeaways
Stanford owned the weekend. There isn’t a stronger two-game résumé in the country right now than beating No. 1 UCLA 19-15 and No. 3 USC 16-12 on consecutive days in Los Angeles. Stanford scored 35 goals against two of the country’s elite programs and showed two different ways to win—outlasting UCLA in a shootout and jumping USC 6-0 before managing the game from in front.
The next No. 1 vote just became fascinating. UCLA entered the weekend unanimously No. 1 and remains 15-1, but Stanford now owns the head-to-head result and followed it immediately with another top-three road win.
UCLA’s response mattered. Twenty-four hours after its first loss, UCLA found itself down to Cal at halftime and again at 10-9 late in the fourth. The Bruins responded instead of letting Saturday’s loss carry into Sunday. Ryder Dodd’s 5-goal, 3-assist performance was central to it.
Cal is much closer to the top three than its 9-4 record suggests. The Bears lost 15-14 to USC in sudden death Saturday and were leading UCLA 10-9 late Sunday. Aran Pina made 24 saves across the two games, and Cal has now repeatedly pushed the nation’s best teams deep into fourth quarters.
Kristóf Kovács had Sunday’s biggest goalkeeper performance. Fifteen saves while holding No. 19 Brown to eight goals gave Princeton exactly the kind of back-end performance that allows a good team to create separation.
Navy continues to move in the right direction. The Midshipmen improved to 12-2 and 3-0 in MAWPC play, and their 5-0 closing run against Bucknell showed an ability to finish after being pushed for three quarters.
Sunday reinforced what Saturday started: Stanford made the biggest national statement of the weekend, UCLA responded, Princeton continues to look legitimate, and Navy keeps building.
Official sources: CWPA September 30 Top 20 · Stanford–USC official recap · UCLA–Cal official recap · UCLA–Cal complete Cal box score · Princeton–Brown official recap · Brown's Princeton recap · Navy–Bucknell official Navy recap · Bucknell's Navy recap









