No. 9 Water Polo Falls to No. 3 Stanford

Saturday, September 5

Malibu, Calif.

1:00 PM

Pepperdine University

4-2

Stanford

2-0

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Stanford	2	5	3	4	14
Pepperdine	0	1	3	2	6

Photo by: Jeff Golden

9/5/2026 3:35:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

MALIBU, Calif. — No. 9 Pepperdine water polo (4-3) was defeated by a score of 14-6 against No. 3 Stanford (3-0) Saturday afternoon from Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool.

The Cardinal jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period and never relinquished the multi-goal advantage. Brian Barnuevo led the Waves with a pair of goals on the day, while Erik Ionescu tabbed three steals defensively.

"I'm super proud of our team's intensity today, especially with how we started the game,'" said head coach Merrill Moses. "Stanford is a very good team and unfortunately we had some key mistakes in the second quarter that led to multiple easy counter attack goals, which was the big difference in the game. We missed a lot of our 6-on-5 opportunities as well. We will learn from our mistakes and the team is ready to bounce back tomorrow against USC."

The two sides traded multiple defensive stops to begin the game, with Stanford eventually breaking through with the opening goal at the 4:24 mark. The Cardinal added one more in the opening frame while shutting out the Waves in the opening eight minutes, to take a 2-0 lead into the second.

The offenses continued to struggle in the second half, with Stanford pulling out to a 3-0 lead before an Alex Piccin goal got the Waves on the board with 4:50 remaining in the half. The Cardinal made five saves in the first half to hold Pepperdine to just one goal, using a pair of tallies in the final minute to take a 7-1 lead into halftime.

Pepperdine found life in the third period, scoring the first two goals of the second half with Conor Brough and Brian Barnuevo netting scores to make it a 7-3 game. The Cardinal did not allow the Waves to make it any closer, scoring the next two in quick succession, eventually bringing the score to 10-3. Barnuevo put in his second of the quarter with 14 seconds remaining, as the Waves trailed 10-4 heading into the fourth period.

Hunter Danko fired in his 11th goal of the season to begin the fourth, with Stanford using a 3-0 run over the next six minutes to wind down the clock with the lead. Sameer Gowda got on the scoresheet late off a feed from Woden Chompff, bringing the final score to 14-6 in favor of Stanford.

Dimitris Chatzis had a game-high six goals for Stanford while Bernardo Herzer made nine saves in goal for the Cardinal.

Barnuevo had the lone multi-point effort for the Waves. Max Smirnov made five saves in the cage for Pepperdine while collecting three steals.

The Waves return tomorrow for a road matchup at No. 2 USC (5-0), set for 1 p.m. with streaming on overnght.com.

ABOUT PEPPERDINE WATER POLO
Pepperdine water polo has seen success spanning decades under Terry Schroeder who gave the reins to Merrill Moses following the 2023 season. Highlighted by its national championship in 1997 with Moses as the starting goalie, the Waves have reached the NCAA Tournament on 13 occasions and recently won the inaugural WCC Regular Season Championship in 2023. Overall, the program has seen 67 athletes garner All-American honors while boasting a winning record in 37 of 51 seasons.

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