Bears Close Regular Season With Big Splash

BERKELEY - The Cal men's water polo team brings the 2017 regular season to a close with a trip to rival Stanford as the Bears and Cardinal meet on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in the annual Big Splash.

The winner will receive the Steve Heaston Trophy, which is awarded to the winner of the Big Splash. The trophy is named for the legendary Cal coach who made an indellible impact both as an assistant and head coach as he helped the Bears amass what now stands at 14 national titles, most of any men's water polo program in the country. The match will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks with Jim Watson and Adam Krikorian on the call.

Cal will look to close the regular season with the same sort of performance that carried the Bears to a 6-3 victory over No. 1 USC last weekend. Goalkeeper Kevin Le Vine earned MPSF Player of the Week honors after making 18 saves and four different Bears took care of the scoring, led by two goals apiece from Spencer Farrar and Conor Neumann. The win was also historically significant for the Bears as it clinched Cal's first undefeated home season since 1992.

GETTING DEFENSIVE
While Cal's offense has been in high gear throughout the season, the Bears have leaned on their defense to carry them in key situations. Last week's win over USC saw Cal hold the Trojans to their lowest goal output since 2015 and the Bears have held their last four opponents to an average of 6.5 goals per match. Goalkeeper Kevin Le Vine has been a huge part of that effort and the senior from El Cajon, Calif. is averaging 12.46 saves per game entering the Stanford match.

SCOUTING STANFORD

The Cardinal enter Thursday's contest with a 16-3 overall record and 1-1 mark in MPSF play after a 7-5 victory over UCLA on Saturday extended Stanford's winning streak to 10 games.
Redshirt freshman Ben Hallock has been Stanford's offensive catalyst this year and leads the Cardinal with an MPSF-high 52 goals. Hallock ranks second behind Cal's Luca Cupido in goals per game with 2.74 while senior Cody Smith and junior Blake Parrish are tied for 10^th at 1.58.
Redshirt senior Drew Holland has been a stalwart in the cage for the Cardinal and ranks second in the MPSF with a 5.82 goals against average.
Stanford's last loss came at the hands of the Golden Bears as Cal scored an 11-9 win in the third-place match of the Mountain Pacific Invitational on Sept. 24. Johnny Hooper led the way with four goals, Luca Cupido added three and Kevin Le Vine made 10 saves.

NEXT UP
Thursday's trip to Stanford starts a stretch of just over a week in which the Bears will make Avery Aquatic Center their home away from home. Cal heads south again from Nov. 17 to 19 as the Cardinal play host to the MPSF Championships. The field for the 2017 NCAA Championships, hosted by USC from Dec. 2-3, will be announced on Nov. 19.