You had to figure it would come down to this. Heading into the NCAA tournament, Stanford’s defending national champion water polo team had already played Cal four times, winning twice and losing twice. Each contest had been determined by one goal, including the Bears’ defeat of the Cardinal on their way to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title. It seemed only appropriate, then, that the two schools should meet to decide the 2002 national championship in December.
Cardinal junior Mike Derse said as much after Stanford dispatched UC-San Diego in the NCAA semifinals, 10-5, to advance to the championship game. “I couldn’t think of a better way to end the season than to play Cal,” he told a reporter.
Stanford and Cal had previously met in the NCAA title game six times since the tournament began in 1969. The record? Stanford 3, Cal 3. The last battle was in 1992, when the Bears won in triple overtime, 12-11. But Cal hadn’t been to the finals since 1995, when it lost to UCLA; and Stanford was returning a team of veterans familiar with the spotlight.
“Honestly, I thought we were going to beat them by three goals,” says first-year Cardinal head coach John Vargas. He had to settle for one. Led by sophomore sensation Tony Azevedo, who scored four goals in the game and was named tournament MVP, Stanford earned its 10th NCAA crown by defeating Cal, 7-6.
The Cardinal jumped to an early lead on two first-period goals by senior All-American Peter Hudnut and never relinquished it. Trailing 7-4 with just over four minutes to play, Cal scored twice late in the final period, and Stanford needed seven saves by four-time All-American goalie Nick Ellis to preserve the win. “Our defense was playing very well,” Vargas says. “We almost didn’t have to talk.”
Azevedo’s four goals in the final game culminated another stellar season. The American Water Polo Coaches Association named him Player of the Year for the second year in a row, and his 95 goals crushed Stanford’s single-season record of 87, set by Erich Fischer in 1986.
“He’s something special,” says Vargas, who first worked with Azevedo as the coach of the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney. “[His performance] just shows you what an outstanding player and teammate he is, how he makes other players better. I think his approach is great. He works so hard, and what he says he’s sincere about. He backs it up.”
Although the team will lose Hudnut, Ellis and fellow seniors Jeff Guyman and Jeff Nesmith, the Cardinal is already pointing to next season. After celebrating the victory and back-to-back titles, team members returned to campus to find an e-mail message from Vargas.
“Come back from break in shape and ready to work hard,” the coach wrote. “Stanford has never won three straight national championships. (Cal has.)”
—Brian Eule, ’01
