The Stanford men’s water polo team will host conference-rival No. 14 Long Beach State on Saturday before traveling to face UC-Santa Cruz in an away match on Sunday to complete their weekend double-header. Coming off a four-game win streak, the No. 4 Cardinal squad looks to carry momentum into its first home game in five weeks.

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The No. 4 Cardinal men’s water polo team will look to extend their winning streak to six games as it faces Long Beach State and UC-Santa Cruz this weekend. The Cardinal are favored in both matchups against conference opponents. #gallery http://daily.stanford.org/image/full/6429
Adrian Gaitan

The No. 4 Cardinal men’s water polo team will look to extend their winning streak to six games as it faces Long Beach State and UC-Santa Cruz this weekend. The Cardinal are favored in both matchups against conference opponents.

“The team is excited to be at home and play in front of the home crowd,” head coach John Vargas said. “We definitely feed off the energy of the Stanford students, and it’s good to be back in our stadium.”

Last weekend, the team collected two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation wins against No. 11 Pepperdine and No. 9 UC-Santa Barbara. The Cardinal faced Pepperdine for the second time in six days and won an 8-6 decision at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool. Stanford was aided in the win by two goals each from junior Michael Bury, freshman Drac Wigo, and senior Tyler Drake.

The next day, freshman Janson Wigo lifted Stanford to an 11-10 double-overtime, sudden-death victory with a dramatic skip shot past UCSB goalkeeper Rick Wright — completing his hat-trick for the match. His two goals in the fourth quarter helped to force the decisive overtime.

Despite the Cardinal’s 10-game win-streak against Long Beach State, including a recent 10-7 victory at the SoCal Open, Vargas does not believe that his team’s dominance over the 49ers will guarantee a win.

“Saturday is a conference game, and each one of them is important because it sets the seeding for the end of the season,” Vargas said. “What comes into play is that it’s a conference match, and that we will be prepared for a battle. We can’t take any conference team lightly.”

The Cardinal are currently 11-5 overall and 3-1 in the MPSF standings, second to Southern California, who boast a 17-game win streak. Long Beach State is 5-11 overall with a 0-3 MPSF record and is last in the conference.

The 49ers suffered two home losses to No. 2 California and No. 6 Pacific last weekend and are 1-5 in their last six games. The match against Long Beach State will be on Saturday at noon at the Avery Aquatic Center.

Following the home match, the Cardinal will travel to Santa Cruz, Calif. to face the 5-15 Banana Slugs.

After facing and defeating many ranked opponents, Vargas believes that the team is primed to compete against the best of the best.

“We’re playing really good team water polo right now. Players are stepping up when the team needs them to do so,” Vargas said.

Vargas also mentioned senior J.J. Garton and juniors Ryan Fortune and Forrest Schwartz as key players during their streak.

“Right now, those players [Garton, Fortune, and Schwartz] are playing really good defense for our team,” Vargas said. “Garton hasn’t scored as much, but he makes up for it on the defensive end.”

The results of this weekend’s matches will play a role in shaping the conference standings heading into a home matchup against No. 1 USC on Nov. 4.