Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

All-MPSF Men's Water Polo Selections

11/15/2018 5:00:00 PM

Photo: Ben Hallock, Stanford (Courtesy Stanford Athletics)

2018 MOUNTAIN PACIFIC SPORTS FEDERATION
ALL-MPSF MEN’S WATER POLO SELECTIONS

2018 MPSF Men's Water Polo All-Conference Honorees-PDF  
Stanford redshirt sophomore Ben Hallock (Studio City, CA/Harvard-Westlake HS) shares the MPSF scoring lead with 55 goals (2.89 GPG) through the regular season. He was named MPSF Player of the Week twice this year, one of just two players to earn the honor in multiple weeks. Hallock finished with four goals and three assists in leading the Cardinal to a 13-11 win over No. 1 and previously undefeated USC (Oct. 6), which gave him his first award and Stanford the eventual No. 1 seed in the MPSF Tournament. His second weekly honor was following a 2018 MPSF single-game high eight goals in a win over No. 11 UC Irvine (Oct. 28), the first such production by any MPSF player in over three full years. Hallock is the first MPSF Water Polo player for either gender to go from a newcomer of the year to player of the year in consecutive seasons. He represents Stanford’s all-time high 10th MPSF Player of the Year award, and first since 2008 (Jimmie Sandman-‘08; Tony Azevedo-‘04, ‘03, ‘02, ‘01; Brian Heifferon-‘99; Layne Beaubien-‘98; Brian Wallin-‘96; Wolf Wigo-‘94). 
 
USC freshman Hannes Daube (Long Beach, CA/Orange Lutheran HS) leads the MPSF freshman class with 49 goals through the regular season, and ranks sixth overall in the conference in scoring average (1.96 GPG). He was a four-time MPSF Newcomer of the Week, with his last honor (Oct. 29) setting a new conference men’s water polo record for most such accolades. Daube was one of four MPSF players this year to deliver a six-goal game (Oct. 6 at Stanford), but the first to do so in a regular season MPSF contest since the 2015 season. He went on to earn his third weekly newcomer award following that outing. He is the only freshman to earn all-conference first-team recognition. Daube is USC’s third MPSF Newcomer of the Year recipient (Matt Maier-‘16; Joel Dennerley-‘08).
 
Stanford head coach John Vargas has guided the Cardinal to an 18-2 (.900) record entering the postseason, and for the second-straight year, an MPSF Tournament No. 1 seed. Fifteen of those wins have been against ranked opponents, nine against the top-10, and four against the top-five. Stanford began the year 13-0, the program’s best start in 17 years, following an October 13 win which ended defending NCAA Champion UCLA’s 20-game win streak. Stanford combined for five player and newcomer of the week honors this year, and has three of the top-four scorers in the conference. Vargas is 340-104 overall (.766) since taking over the Cardinal program in 2002 which culminated in a national championship. This is the second MPSF Coach of the Year award for Vargas (2004).