California Golden Bears Athletics
Saturday, December 2
Los Angeles, CA
5:15 PM
California
at
Semifinal: Cal vs. USC
Cal Looks To Defend NCAA Title At USC
11/29/2017 3:59 PM | Men's Water Polo
BERKELEY - The defending national champion Cal men's water polo team heads to Los Angeles in search of back-to-back titles as the Bears enter the 2017 National Men's Water Polo Championships as the No. 2 seed at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center. Cal will open tournament play on Dec. 2 at 5:15 p.m. when it takes on host USC in the second of two national semifinal games. No. 1 UCLA and Pacific open the day's action at 3 p.m. The winners of Saturday's matches will advance to Sunday's championship game at 3 p.m. All matches will be streamed live on NCAA.com and live updates will be available through the Cal Water Polo Twitter account (@CalWaterPolo).
Cal advanced to its third-straight NCAA tournament thanks to a 10-9 overtime win over Stanford in the third-place match of the MPSF Championships. MPSF Player of the Year Luca Cupido scored with 11 seconds left in regulation to tie the match and goals from Odysseas Masmanidis and Cupido in overtime made the difference as Cal claimed the final at-large bid to the NCAA Championships.
MPSF TOURNAMENT RECAP
The Bears bounced back from an opening-night loss to UCLA to claim third at the MPSF Championships and earned the final at-large spot to the NCAA Championships. After an 8-5 setback against the Bruins, Cal rebounded with a 27-3 victory over Penn State Behrend to earn a spot in the third-place match. Squaring off with the host Cardinal, the Bears got a late goal from senior Luca Cupido and overtime scores from Cupido and Odysseas Masmanidis to earn a 10-9 win. Both Cupido and Masmanidis were named to the All-MPSF Tournament team.
AWARD TIME
For the first time since 1995, the MPSF's top player calls Berkeley home as senior Luca Cupido was named MPSF Player of the Year in a vote of conference coaches. The native of Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy led the conference in scoring with 57 goals and a 2.71 goals per game average. Junior Odysseas Masmanidis was named All-MPSF first team, fellow junior Johnny Hooper was named to the second team and senior Kevin Le Vine and junior Vassilis Tzavaras earned honorable mention.
LAST TIME AROUND
The 2016 National Men's Water Polo Championships were held at Spieker Aquatics Complex and that added to the joy of Cal adding its 14th national title as the Bears celebrated a thrilling 11-8 victory over USC in front of a home crowd. Goalkeeper Lazar Andric was named tournament MVP thanks to a 14-save performance. Luca Cupido, Odysseas Masmanidis and Johnny Hooper were all named first team all-tournament and Conor Neumann was named to the second team. To get to the final, Cal defeated Pomona-Pitzer 16-6 in a play-in game and then defeated UCLA 9-8 in the semifinals.
MPSF MAKING AN IMPACT
The ultra-competitive MPSF Tournament again produced three NCAA tournament teams as tournament champion USC earned the conference's automatic berth while UCLA and the Bears claimed at-large spots in the field. Those same three teams made the 2016 tournament and Cal turned its at-large berth into a national title, a feat the Bears hope to repeat in 2017.
Cal advanced to its third-straight NCAA tournament thanks to a 10-9 overtime win over Stanford in the third-place match of the MPSF Championships. MPSF Player of the Year Luca Cupido scored with 11 seconds left in regulation to tie the match and goals from Odysseas Masmanidis and Cupido in overtime made the difference as Cal claimed the final at-large bid to the NCAA Championships.
MPSF TOURNAMENT RECAP
The Bears bounced back from an opening-night loss to UCLA to claim third at the MPSF Championships and earned the final at-large spot to the NCAA Championships. After an 8-5 setback against the Bruins, Cal rebounded with a 27-3 victory over Penn State Behrend to earn a spot in the third-place match. Squaring off with the host Cardinal, the Bears got a late goal from senior Luca Cupido and overtime scores from Cupido and Odysseas Masmanidis to earn a 10-9 win. Both Cupido and Masmanidis were named to the All-MPSF Tournament team.
AWARD TIME
For the first time since 1995, the MPSF's top player calls Berkeley home as senior Luca Cupido was named MPSF Player of the Year in a vote of conference coaches. The native of Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy led the conference in scoring with 57 goals and a 2.71 goals per game average. Junior Odysseas Masmanidis was named All-MPSF first team, fellow junior Johnny Hooper was named to the second team and senior Kevin Le Vine and junior Vassilis Tzavaras earned honorable mention.
LAST TIME AROUND
The 2016 National Men's Water Polo Championships were held at Spieker Aquatics Complex and that added to the joy of Cal adding its 14th national title as the Bears celebrated a thrilling 11-8 victory over USC in front of a home crowd. Goalkeeper Lazar Andric was named tournament MVP thanks to a 14-save performance. Luca Cupido, Odysseas Masmanidis and Johnny Hooper were all named first team all-tournament and Conor Neumann was named to the second team. To get to the final, Cal defeated Pomona-Pitzer 16-6 in a play-in game and then defeated UCLA 9-8 in the semifinals.
MPSF MAKING AN IMPACT
The ultra-competitive MPSF Tournament again produced three NCAA tournament teams as tournament champion USC earned the conference's automatic berth while UCLA and the Bears claimed at-large spots in the field. Those same three teams made the 2016 tournament and Cal turned its at-large berth into a national title, a feat the Bears hope to repeat in 2017.
Players Mentioned
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