BERKELEY - Faced with a top-five opponent in the final home meet of the fall season, the Cal men's swimming and diving team had its last chance Friday to show its fans what the future might hold once the calendar turns to 2016.

And, although a final score of 170.5 to 127.5 reflected the way in which the Bears were able to pull away from a strong North Carolina State squad, it wasn't necessarily the wins that provided the most excitement looking forward as fans filed out and the lights came on at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

Instead, continued improvement was the phrase of the day as the Bears improved to 3-0 in dual meets this season. Wins from up and down the lineup, coupled with good energy and some key scoring swims that didn't necessarily end in victories gave Cal what it needed to extend its dual meet win streak to 25. The win over NC State, coupled with a solid performance against Stanford in Wednesday's Triple Distance Meet, capped the fall home campaign with a strong final week.

"I thought we were OK. I thought our guys did a good job of being in the meet start to finish. It's hard to do that in a triple distance meet because you're racing every 15 minutes," Cal head coach David Durden said. "Here, we were really able to focus in an event at a time and try to maximize our point-scoring potential. I thought we did a good job. It kind of played out as planned and that's a testament to our seniors. They put together this lineup and we rolled with it. I thought they did a good job of directing and leading the team."

Cal's winning ways started right away as the 200-yard medley relay team of Ryan Murphy, Connor Hoppe, Josh Prenot and Justin Lynch clocked a time of 1:26.13 that lowered Auburn's previous top time of the season by over a second. Long Gutierrez added a win in the 200 freestyle and the Cal duo of Murphy and Jacob Pebley went 1-2 in the 100 backstroke to increase Cal's lead. Hoppe continued a good week with a win in the 100 breaststroke to keep the momentum going.

The 200 butterfly turned out to be one of the day's most intriguing events as Prenot and freshman Andrew Seliskar locked horns in an entertaining duel. After remaining neck and neck early in the race, Seliskar pulled away late to clock a time of 1:44.19 that ranks best in the nation so far this season.

Cal added some valuable points at the first break courtesy of a good performance in 1-meter diving by Finn Scribbick. The sophomore from San Antonio, Texas posted a score of 308.10 to add nine points to the Bears' lead. Murphy followed with a national-best 1:41.35 to win the 200 backstroke and Prenot and Seliskar met again in the 200 breaststroke only to this time see the senior Prenot emerge with the win and a strong time of 1:56.12.

Lynch earned another win in the 100 butterfly and Prenot added a second victory with a second-half rally to edge Seliskar in the 200 IM to finish the winning for the Bears. NC State scored big in the two areas that looked favorable coming into the meet as reigning ACC swimmer of the year Simonas Bilis won the 50 and 100 freestyle while returning ACC freshman of the year Anton Ipsen won the 1,650 and 500 freestyle.

"I think we stepped up as far as energy and excitement goes because this is our first opponent where we were kind of concerned about not necessarily getting the win," Pebley said. "Mentally we were ready to go but I think it caught us out of our mindset of doing things right to a certain degree. We found ways to win but we didn't find ways to put up maybe as good of times as we're capable of."

Cal now returns to training as it gears up for a trip to the Georgia Invitational on the first weekend in December. Before that, Cal's divers will head to Austin to compete in the Texas Diving Invitational from Nov. 19-21.