UCLA
Stanford
No. 3 UCLA Falls to No. 2 Stanford, 16-15
November 23, 2019 | Men's Water Polo
SOCIAL MEDIA:ย MWP on Twitterย |ย MWP on Facebookย |ย MWP on Instagram
The Bruins were led by junior Nicolas Saveljicย who scored a career-high five goals. Freshman Tommy Gruwell also scored a career-high four goals while sophomore Ashworth Molthen had two goals and five assists for seven points. Redshirt senior Alex Wolf played the entire game in the cage for the Bruins and tallied 12 saves while giving up 16 goals.
UCLA jumped out to a 5-4 lead at the end of the first period. Gruwell scored twice (7:09 and 0:47) and sophomore Jake Cavano (4:45), freshman Andy Rodgers (2:08), and Saveljic (1:37) each scored one goal in the opening quarter.
The Bruins won the second period, 3-2, with Gruwell completing his hat trick (5:56). Saveljicย (7:19) and Rodgers (3:43) each scored their second goal of the game in the second quarter to give UCLA an 8-6 lead at the break.
Stanford dominated the third quarter, outscoring UCLA 6-2, to take a 12-10 lead into the final period. Saveljic completed his hat trick in the third (7:11) and Molthen netted his first of the contest (0:08).
UCLA mounted a comeback in the fourth to send the game into overtime, winning the quarter 4-2. Bennett Williams opened the scoring in the fourth with a power play goal to give Stanford a 13-10 lead (7:31). But the Bruins responded with back-to-back power play goals as Saveljicย struck for the fourth time (5:53) and Cavanoย netting his second of the game (4:57) to cut the deficit to one goal, 13-12. Dylan Woodhead's goal at even strength (4:35) put the Cardinal up 14-12. But Gruwell scored his fourth (3:07) of the game to make it 14-13, setting up Molthen's heroics on a power play with 0:42 remaining to tie it at 14-14.
Tyler Abramson opened the scoring in the first overtime period with a goal at full strength (2:22) to put Stanford up 15-14. Then Williams ended the period with a power play goal (0:22) to extend the lead to 16-14. Saveljic scored his fifth goal of the game with 0:04 to go to provide the 16-15 final.
The Bruins return to action tomorrow in the third-place game when they faceย top-seeded USC at 1:00 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Networks.
No. 3 UCLA vs. No. 2 Stanford (MPSF Semifinal)
| SCOREBOARD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1OT | 2OT | FINAL |
| No. 3 UCLA | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 15 |
| No. 2 Stanford | 4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 16 |
6x5 -ย UCLA - 4/14 - STAN - 2/7
Penalties -ย UCLA - 0/1 - STAN - 0/0
UCLA Goals:ย Nicolas Saveljic 5, Tommy Gruwell 4, Jake Cavano 2, Andy Rodgers 2, Ashworth Molthen 2
UCLA Saves:ย Alex Wolf 12
STAN Goals:ย Bennett Williams 4, Tyler Abramson 3, Dylan Woodhead 2, Quinn Woodhead 2, Larsen Weigle 2, Ben Hallock 2, Parker Killion 1
STAN Saves:ย Andrew Chun 16
