This weekend the No. 4 Stanford men’s water polo team will face off against No. 11 UC-Irvine and No. 17 Santa Clara for the first two games of a three-game homestand heading into the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament. The Cardinal have not faced either team previously this season.

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The Cardinal will look to prove their worth against UC-Irvine and Santa Clara at home this weekend. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/6536
Andrew Davis

The Cardinal will look to prove their worth against UC-Irvine and Santa Clara at home this weekend.

Coming off a hard-fought loss to undefeated USC, followed by a trouncing of UC-Davis the next day, the Cardinal (14-6) will look to run the table against lower-ranked teams at home as they close out the regular season.

To do so, Stanford will have to tame the Anteaters (9-16), who are essentially a one-man show with junior sensation Colin Mello leading the way. Recently named the MPSF Player of the Week after notching an incredible 13 goals in two games against Long Beach State and Cal Baptist, Mello leads the Anteaters with 72 goals for the season.

On the Cardinal’s side, balance on offense is the key, with senior captain Tyler Drake, sophomore Will Hindle-Katel and freshman twins Drac and Janson Wigo with more than 25 goals each. Along with senior captain JJ Garton’s and junior Michael Bury’s 19 goals apiece, the Cardinal feature an attack that is six players deep.

In games against Cal and USC, the Cardinal have done a relatively good job of shutting down the other team’s primary scorer. They held the Bears senior John Mann and Trojan senior Thomas Hale — both serious candidates for the Peter J. Cutino Award, given to the best player in the country — to two and no goals, respectively. Without a serious second scoring option, UC-Irvine could have trouble mustering enough of an offense against the Cardinal.

Similarly, Santa Clara (13-12) does not display much depth or balance offensively, with sophomore Jack Wall and freshman Liam Farrell scoring just under half of the Broncos’ goals.

Defense has not been the Cardinal’s problem recently, as the team has struggled on offense, most notably managing just two goals against USC. The defense, meanwhile, has been superb, led by Garton and redshirt juniors Ryan Fortune, Forrest Schwartz and Peter Finlayson, as well as goalkeepers senior Sandy Hohener and sophomore Jimmie Sandman.

Throughout this season, the buzz around this year’s team has been its youth, and whether or not the team would gel after losing key players to graduation. If there was ever a right time to peak, this weekend and next week’s match against No. 8 Pacific would be appropriate.

Right now it is clear that Stanford will not surpass USC, Cal, or UCLA in the national rankings, but holding onto their No. 4 ranking will be key in terms of seeding in the MPSF Tournament. From there, anything can happen, as evidenced by the Cardinal’s extremely competitive games against the elite teams.