LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A game that had twists and turns throughout ended on the wrong side of the ledger for the Cal men's water polo team as an overtime goal by No. 2-ranked UCLA proved decisive and the No. 3 Bears dropped an 11-10 decision on the first day of the MPSF Championships hosted by the Bruins.

Heading to overtime tied at 9, Cal and UCLA battled to a stalemate after the first OT period. Patrick Fellner put the Bruins ahead first with his third goal of the match but Odysseas Masmanidis countered for the Bears, scoring from two meters for his third goal and tying the match at 10 after three minutes of extra time.

Alex Roelse struck for UCLA with 2:03 left in the second overtime, firing a shot from outside to convert a 6 on 5 opportunity and make it 11-10. Cal got a brief 6 on 4 opportunity and finished its final offensive possession with a 6 on 5 chance but a save by Garrett Danner sealed the deal for UCLA.

A good start for the Bears featured first period goals by Johnny Hooper and Luca Cupido but Cal really made its move in the second period when three goals, two coming from Hooper and one on a penalty shot, pushed the Bears' lead to 5-3.

The defensive slugfest continued in the third period as each team managed a goal apiece and a power play goal by Masmanidis represented the lone score for the Bears as they took a 6-4 lead to the fourth period. And, the Bruins drew even closer with 6:41 left as a goal from two meters by Matt Farmer made it 6-5 Cal.

An exclusion on Cal with just over four minutes to play gave UCLA a chance on the power play and the Bruins converted with Alex Roelse finding the upper corner of the net to make it 6-6. That wasn't the end of the Bears though, as Masmanidis got the ball at two meters, created space and fired past UCLA goalkeeper Garrett Danner to make it 7-6 Bears.

The back and forth continued with UCLA scoring again, this time on a goal from Patrick Fellner on a 6-on-4 chance with 3:40 left. It didn't take long for Cal to get another chance and the crucial shot landed in the middle of the net courtesy of a strike by Jarrels and Cal took the lead right back with an 8-7 advantage.

Fellner again evened the score with 1:53 to play, finding open net just to the side of goalkeeper Lazar Andric. And again, Cal had the answer, this time from the right arm of Hooper as his long-range strike found the net to put Cal back in front just 10 seconds after Fellner tied the match. A goal by Gordon Marshall continued the intrigue, tying the game again, and a save by Danner gave the Bruins the ball with 45 seconds left.

Cal got the crucial defensive stop it needed but, when the Bears got out into open water, Danner was there to stop a one on one chance. Cal got the ball back and called time out but couldn't convert as the game went into extra time.
 
Andric had 12 saves for the Bears while Hooper led the way with four goals. With Friday's loss, Cal now gets set to play Penn State Behrend at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The winner of that match will take on Stanford on Sunday at 11 a.m. in the MPSF third-place match. Saturday's contest will be streamed live via UCLA's web site while Sunday's game will be televised live by Pac-12 Networks.