BERKELEY – Thanks to one of the most incredible finishes in the history of the NCAA men's water polo tournament, the 2006 Cal men's water polo team will forever have a spot in the sport's history.

But, when Jeff Tyrrell's last-second shot found the net and clinched a 7-6 win over USC that gave the Bears their 12^th national championship, it wasn't just a stroke of luck that materialized at the perfect time.

Instead, that goal provided the perfect ending to a season full of hard work, brotherhood and a desire to return the nation's most successful program back to the top of the collegiate water polo mountain.

The ending is well known, immortalized on YouTube with a clip titled "Water Polo Hail Mary," but the story of a memorable 2006 season actually began a few years earlier. An influx of young talent began in 2003, and with a few more pieces added in 2004, the Bears finished 20-10 but placed seventh in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) tournament.

Progress continued in 2005. A 21-7 campaign ended with the Bears narrowly missing a return to the NCAA Tournament, a result that offered both the promise of what might yet be to come and the motivation that comes with coming up just short of a goal.

"By the time we got to that 2006 season, that group had been through a lot together," Tyrrell said. "And, we had a group of seniors that really showed us what it meant to be a team. All that work and the relationships had been built before that 2006 season started and it was a matter of putting it all together to reach that NCAA final."

The 2006 season started well enough, and with a 10-0 record that included a one-goal win over rival Stanford, momentum appeared to be on the Bears' side. That's when USC interjected, beating the Bears 10-7 to deal Cal its first loss of the year. It would be the first of three regular season wins for USC, the last of which came in a regular season finale that featured a late Trojans rally to beat the Bears.

"To my surprise, I think they were more confident after losing that game than I had ever seen them. I think they knew what they could do and then let it slip," said Cal head coach Kirk Everist. "But, they were very hungry to get at them one more game. That was really great to see, so there wasn't a whole lot to say other than let's take what we can take out of those first three quarters and figure out how to win those games. I felt like there was just a different look in their eyes after that game, which was surprising."

Cal got its chance at redemption in the MPSF final, and this time the result would be a little different. Fourh-quarter goals by Spencer Warden and Tyrrell put Cal ahead and goalkeeper Mark Sheredy stopped nine shots as the Bears earned a 6-5 win to claim the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The win broke USC's 44-match winning streak and sent both teams on to the season's final tournament at Loyola Marymount.

The Bears rolled in their NCAA semifinal, beating UC San Diego 17-7 behind three goals apiece from seniors John Mann, Brian Bacharach, Brian Kinsel and Andrija Vasiljevic. The win set up a fifth meeting with the Trojans, and by halftime of the championship game, USC looked poised to beat the Bears again with a 4-2 lead going into the break.

The match was far from over. Cal responded with three goals in the third period and another in the fourth to take a 6-4 lead. USC scored the next two goals though, and when Thomas Hale scored for the Trojans with two seconds left to tie the score at 6, the match appeared headed for overtime.

With Everist confined to the stands due to a red card, the Bears called time out with 1.78 seconds left to contemplate one final chance before regulation ended. Cal assistant Boyd Lachance gathered the team, asked who wanted the last shot and Tyrrell, who had been on the bench, raised his hand.

"It wasn't really a drawn up play. There wasn't enough time to make any big movements," Tyrrell said. "It had to be a quick pass, touch and get the ball off. The way it ended up working out obviously couldn't have worked out any better."

Warden put the ball back into play, finding Tyrrell outside of 10 meters. He gathered the ball as quickly as possible, fired a shot and, after taking a slight deflection off a USC defender, the ball whistled by the goalkeeper's left ear for one of the sport's most memorable goals and a 7-6 Cal victory.

"I was on the wing, on the sixth position, wrestling with somebody. I was underwater, got my head up and I saw the ball in the cage," said Vasiljevic. "I immediately started yelling and screaming because I was worried the referee wasn't going to rule the goal. So, I just started yelling just so if somebody paid attention to something else, we were winning the championship."

The win over USC gave Cal its ultimate prize, but the individual accolades bestowed upon the team also reflected what a year it had been. Mann, who scored 80 goals in a season that ranks fourth in Cal's single-season scoring history, earned the Pete Cutino Award as the nation's top player.

Everist was named National Coach of the Year and 10 Bears – Mann, Kinsel, Sheredy (also named NCAA championship MVP after making 12 saves), Marty Matthies, Vasiljevic, Tyrrell, Brian Bacharach, Adam Haley, Michael Sharf and Spencer Warden – earned All-America honors. Sheredy, Mann, Kinsel and Vasiljevic were first team All-NCAA Tournament performers while Bacharach and Matthies were named to the second team.

"In the pool, it was a super talented group," Everist said. "Out of the pool, there were a lot of personalities. It took a while for them to come into their own and get used to working with each other but, once they did, it was pretty special to watch them play together."