BERKELEY – The Cal women's water polo team wrapped up fall workouts last week with heightened excitement and expectations, itching to get back in the pool in January to gear up for the 2018 season.

The Bears, who return four starters from last year's team that advanced to the NCAA semifinals, are looking to take the next and final step in the second season under head coach Coralie Simmons. A productive fall, which included a strong showing at the offseason Collegiate Cup in November, has Cal thinking big in 2018.

"I think the team is really feeling connected and in some ways willing to push each other a little bit more," Simmons said. "It's important to be able to push that threshold of competition day in and day out as a squad. People are stepping into new roles, freshmen are trying to find their little niche, and it's going to be important for us to sustain that through season."

The Bears finished third at the Collegiate Cup, which featured most of the top teams in the nation. That included two wins over highly regarded USC.

Cal's offense should be locked and loaded with the return of All-Americans Dora Antal, Anna Illes, and Emma Wright. Antal needs just 20 goals to become the Bears' all-time leading scorer.

Also back are seniors Carla Carrega and Kindred Paul – each of whom were All-Americans in 2016. Paul missed a good chunk of the second half of last season due to injury.  

"The fall was super encouraging," junior Rachael Lewin said. "We worked really hard. I'm super excited for this year's team. I think we are going to do some really good things this season."

The Bears are now preparing for final exams and then will have a few weeks off before beginning practice for the 2018 season on Jan. 2. Cal opens the year at the Rainbow Invite in Honolulu Jan. 20-21.

"As good as we feel right now, we're going to want to return as close to this as possible," Simmons said. "We're not going to feel this way, but we don't want to come back 10 steps behind and then take three weeks to get back to where we want to be."

Lewin said the players will take it upon themselves during the break to ensure they build upon what they accomplished during the fall.

"It's definitely kind of hard to stay on top of your stuff, but as a team we really push ourselves because we know we have to hold ourselves accountable as well as our team accountable," Lewin said. "We really have to put in that extra work during the month off to come back even better then we left off."

Other than the Collegiate Cup, there are no other chances during the fall to measure the team's progress in terms of wins and losses. But Simmons said the Bears accomplished their goals.

"We were looking for early leadership from our upperclassmen and seeing how the freshmen can get into the fold, and finding our chemistry as fast as possible," Simmons said. "I think in a lot of respects we accomplished that, and how that translates into how we are going to be able to play water polo and how our character is going to be different than last year."