STANFORD, Calif. – No. 7 California could not overcome an early deficit and dropped a 15-8 decision to rival No. 2 Stanford in the 2019 edition of the Big Splash at Avery Aquatic Center on Saturday morning.
 
The host Cardinal (16-2, 1-1 MPSF) raced out to a 4-0 advantage less than five minutes into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) contest and didn't look back. The Bears (11-9, 0-2 MPSF) suffered their fourth loss in six matches since the start of October.
 
With Cal trailing 4-0, Miles O'Brien-Schridde found Garrett Dunn, who put the Bears on the board with his 11th goal of the year. Stanford added one more goal before the end of the first frame, however, to take a 5-1 lead. Goals by Joe Molina and Jack Deely in the second frame cut Stanford's lead to 6-3 before the Cardinal regained momentum and extended its lead to 9-3 at the intermission.
 
Another short run by the Bears saw Nikos Delagrammatikas, Nikolaos Papanikolaou and Warren Loth net consecutive goals to make it a 10-6 deficit for Cal with 1:42 remaining in the third quarter. Cal was able to muster just two more goals the rest of the way however.
 
Adrian Weinberg logged all 32 minutes in goal and made eight saves and snagged one steal.
 
Stanford's Ben Hallock scored eight goals to lead the Cardinal to victory.
 
NOTABLES

• The Bears have lost each of the last three Big Splash matches.
• Safak Simsek, despite being held scoreless for just the second time this season, led Cal with two assists.
• Jordan Hoover drew a team-leading five exclusions.
• O'Brien-Schridde finished with one goal, one assist, one earned ejection and two steals.

 
NEXT TIME
Cal will host No. 15 UC Irvine at Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley at 1 p.m. (PT) on Sunday, Nov. 10.
 
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