Nov. 28, 2010
STANFORD, CALIF. -
2010 MPSF Tournament Page
The No. 1-ranked Cal men's water polo team rebounded from Saturday's semifinal loss, defeating No. 3-ranked UCLA, 10-9, in the third-place match of the 2010 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament Sunday, Nov. 28 at Stanford's Avery Aquatic Center. The Golden Bears, who were led by junior standout Ivan Rackov's five goals, improved to 23-3 and will now await the announcement of the 2010 NCAA championship field later Sunday night (7:30 p.m. Pacific time available on NCAA.com).
The winner of the MPSF Tournament (USC, 8-7, over Stanford in three overtimes) gets an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Cal still has a good shot of receiving an at-large berth due to an outstanding regular season record and a perfect 8-0 mark in the MPSF league standings. The Bruins dropped to 19-6. Cal had defeated Pepperdine, 13-5, Friday before falling to host Stanford, 8-6, Saturday.
Rackov, the MPSF's leading scorer with 75 goals in 25 matches, had a key steal and goal with two and a half minutes left to give Cal a late two-goal advantage at 10-8. The junior from Belgrade, Serbia also scored four of the first six goals for the Bears, giving Cal a 6-2 lead before UCLA was able to tie it at 6-6 early in the third period.
Cristiano Mirarchi had three goals for the Bruins, the last two in the fourth off of five-meter penalty shots.
Cal went up for good early in the fourth period, as junior captain Charlie Steffens followed by senior captain Brian Dudley's second goal of the afternoon, broke a stalemate and put Cal up 9-7 with 4:31 left in the match. Sophomore goalie Justin Parsons finished with 11 saves for Cal, including four saves in the second half.
UCLA had tied the match at 6-6 with 5:29 left in the third quarter off a penalty shot from Kevin Kuga after the Bruins scored back-to-back goals by Ben Hol and Josh Samuels, the second with 1:14 left in the half, to cut the Bears' lead to 6-5.
Cal, the regular season MPSF champions (8-0) went up 4-1 with 2:46 left in the first quarter as Rackov had two of the first four goals and freshman Giacomo Cupido gave the Bears a three-goal advantage. Rackov scored both Cal goals in the second quarter to make the score, 6-2, Bears.
In other MPSF Tournament matches Sunday, Pacific won the seventh place match 13-5 over Pepperdine and UC Irvine defeated UC Santa Barbara 16-12 for fifth place. Cal's Spieker Aquatics Complex will be the host site of the 2010 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship, Dec. 4-5, as well. Tickets and information on the NCAA tournament are available through the following links, Click here for 2010 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship tickets, 2010 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship page. Cal will also host the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship in 2011.
UCLA--1-4-2-2--9
California--4-2-1-3--10
UCLA Goal Scorers - Mirarchi 3, Hohl 2, Samuels,
Murphy, Kuga, Hennessey
California Goal Scorers - Ivan Rackov 5, Brian Dudley 2,
Giacomo Cupido, Luka Saponjic, Charlie Steffens
Goalie Saves: Justin Parsons, Cal 11 (4,3,2,2);
James Hartshorne, UCLA 6 (2,2,1,1)
