BERKELEY - After nearly two weeks away from competition, the Cal men's water polo team returns to action with a pair of tough matches as the No. 2-ranked Bears welcome No. 1 UCLA on Saturday and travel to No. 4 Pacific on Sunday night. 

Saturday's 3:30 p.m. matchup will be televised live by Pac-12 Bay Area and Los Angeles and features a rematch of the Mountain Pacific Invitational final that UCLA won 10-7 on Sept. 25 in Berkeley. Sunday's match at Pacific is set for a 7 p.m. start and will be streamed live on PacificTigers.com.

LAST TIME OUT
Cal's last match took place on Oct. 6 as the Bears jumped out to an early lead and beat Long Beach State 17-7. Johnny Hooper, who leads the MPSF in scoring with 46 goals, led the Bears again with a match-high four goals. Safak Simsek, Thomas Carroll, Vassilis Tzavaras and Timothy Simenc each scored two. Lazar Andric was again a standout in goal, stopping 12 shots and allowing just one goal. The win was Cal's third in a row and pushed the Bears to 14-1 on the season.

2006 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
At halftime of Saturday's match vs. UCLA, Cal will honor the 10-year reunion of its 2006 NCAA championship team. Jeff Tyrrell scored the game-winning goal with less than two seconds remaining as the Bears beat USC 7-6 and claimed their 12th national title. John Mann was named National Player of the Year and 10 players -- Mann, Brian Kinsel, Mark Sheredy (also NCAA finals MVP), Marty Matthies, Dre Vasilievic, Tyrrell, Brian Bacharach, Adam Haley, Michael Sharf and Spencer Warden -- earned All-America honors. Cal finished the year 31-4 overall.

STARTING STRONG
A quartet of convincing victories in New Jersey got the 2016 Bears off on the right foot. An 18-8 win over No. 11 Princeton served as the highlight and was followed by a 15-4 win over George Washington, 17-0 victory over St. Francis and a 16-2 triumph over Johns Hopkins. Johnny Hooper picked up where he left off in 2015 by scoring a team-high 12 goals for the weekend. Freshman Jordan Hoover was impressive in his first collegiate action, scoring nine goals, while Lazar Andric allowed just three goals in six periods of play and the Bears outscored their opponents by a combined margin of 66-14. 

POSTSEASON RETURN
Cal's strong 2015 campaign ended at the NCAA Championships and marked a return to the postseason for the nation's leader in NCAA titles (13). Despite falling to USC in the semifinal round, the Bears rebounded with a 20-9 victory over UC San Diego to bring home the third-place trophy. Luca Cupido was named a first team all-tournament performer while senior Colin Mulcahy and freshmen  Johnny Hooper and Odysseas Masmanidis were named second team in their first NCAA Tournament action.

MAKING A MARK IN RIO
Junior Luca Cupido spent his offseason as a member of Team USA and made an impact as a first-time Olympian in Rio. He started all five matches for the Americans and finished the Games with a total of four goals, three assists, six steals and five blocks. He wasn't the only Golden Bear making a splash for Team USA as Cal alum John Mann also started every game. 

IN THE CAGE
The Bears return one of the premier goalkeepers in the nation with Lazar Andric coming back for his senior season. A third team All-American in 2015, Andric was particularly tough to beat late in the season, registering a career-high 20-save effort in Cal's MPSF semifinal win over Pacific. Entering the week, Andric leads the MPSF in saves per game with 11.45.

ABOUT UCLA

• The Bruins come to Northern California with a 20-0 record and NCAA-record 53 straight victories.
• Head coach Adam Wright's squad made NCAA history on Oct. 9 when a 15-8 win at UC Davis gave the Bruins a record 52^nd straight win. Stanford previously held the mark of 51, set from 1985-87.
• UCLA returns the MPSF Player of the Year in senior goalkeeper Garrett Danner and he has split time in the cage this season with junior Aleksandar Ruzic. Patrick Fellner leads UCLA with 27 goals while Max Irving ranks second with 25.
• Cal and UCLA met on Sept. 25 in the championship match of the Mountain Pacific Invitational and the Bruins earned a 10-7 victory despite a late surge by the Golden Bears. Odysseas Masmanidis led Cal with three goals.

ABOUT PACIFIC

• The Tigers enter Thursday's match against No. 14 George Washington with a 13-4 record. Last time out, Pacific beat No. 18 UC Irvine 17-5 behind a six-goal effort from Tim Reeves.
• Head coach James Graham's squad has relied on a number of different options to lead the way offensively as five players have 20 or more goals. Ege Colak leads the team with 31 goals but Reeves (29), Luke Pavillard (25), Aleksandar Petrovic (24) and Ikko Saito (23) have also been important contributors.
• Alen Osmanovic has drawn all 17 starts in the cage for Pacific and has stopped 192 shots in 17 matches. He owns a goals-against average of 6.45.
• Cal and Pacific met four times in 2015 and each contest turned out to be a nail-biter. The Bears won three of the four meetings, defeating Pacific 13-11 in overtime to win the first match of the season and taking an 11-10 overtime win at the SoCal Tournament. The Tigers got on the board with an 11-10 win in Berkeley but Cal avenged that loss, beating the Tigers 7-5 in a MPSF Tournament semifinal behind a career-high 20 saves from Lazar Andric.