Oct. 27, 2007

STANFORD, Calif. - The No. 8 UC Santa Barbara men's water polo team posted its first win over No. 4 Stanford in over 20 years Saturday afternoon in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match-up. Sophomore Zsombor Vincze led the Gauchos with a hat trick as they outscored the Cardinal 9-7 at Avery Stadium.

With the win, UCSB improves to 17-9 overall and 2-2 in MPSF games. The Cardinal fall to 9-6 overall and 1-3 in conference action.

The Cardinal jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first quarter behind goals from Sage Wright and Ryan Fortune. Senior Ross Sinclair posted the first of his two goals with 3:07 on the clock, but Wright once again found the back of the net to give Stanford a 3-1 lead after one quarter of play.

In the second period, goals from sophomore Stefan Partelow and Mark Knudtsen, a little over a minute apart, tied the game up at 3-3. Stanford recaptured the lead with a rebound goal by Cody Wiesen to enter halftime ahead. 4-3.

The Gauchos opened the second half on fire as they scored three consecutive goals to claim a 6-4 advantage. Vincze sandwiched a pair of goals around Milos Golic's first point, which was scored with 4:49 on the clock. Stanford's Andrew Drake answered with a goal at 1:19 and with 55 seconds left to play in the third, Alex Pulido scored to tie things up at 6-6.

UCSB slammed the door on Stanford's attempted comeback when Vincze and Golic notched back-to-back goals to give the Gauchos an 8-6 advantage at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Drac Wigo, head coach Wolf Wigo's brother, scored with 3:50 on the clock to put the Cardinal back within one, but Sinclair answered with a goal during the following possession. The Gauchos held Stanford scoreless the rest of the way as they captured the 9-7 upset win.

In the cage, senior Rick Wright collected 10 saves, while Stanford goalie Sandy Hohener also tallied 10.

UC Santa Barbara returns to action next Sunday, Nov. 4 when they host No. 2 Cal for the final home game of the season at noon at Campus Pool.

UC Santa Barbara 9, Stanford 7

		1	2	3	4	Final
UCSB		1	2	3	3	9
Stanford        3	1	1	2	7

UCSB Goals: Zsombor Vincze 3, Milos Golic 2, Ross Sinclair 2, Mark Knudtsen 1, Stefan Partelow 1.
Stanford Goals: Sage Wright 2, Drac Wigo 1, Alex Pulido 1, Cody Wiesen 1, Ryan Fortune 1, Andrew Drake 1.

UCSB Goalie Saves: Rick Wright 10.
Stanford Goalie Saves: Sandy Hohener 10.