Homestand Continues Against Pepperdine, UCSD

BERKELEY - Two wins in two tries got the Cal men's water polo team off to a good start on its four-game homestand and now the No. 1-ranked Bears will look to finish their stay at Spieker Aquatics Complex on a similar note as No. 8 Pepperdine and No. 13 UC San Diego visit for a pair of non-conference matches. The Bears host the Waves on Friday at 4 p.m. and the Tritons come to town on Saturday at 1 p.m. to wrap up the week. Live updates for both matches can be found by following Cal Water Polo on Twitter (@CalWaterPolo).

LAST TIME OUT
The Bears relied on their offense to get the home schedule started as a 15-10 win over No. 9 UC Davis gave way to a 15-11 victory over No. 5 Pacific the next day. Senior Luca Cupido continued his strong start to the season, scoring three goals against the Aggies and adding another four against the Tigers. Junior Johnny Hooper, last year's leading scorer for the Bears, made his 2017 debut with four goals against UC Davis and two against Pacific. Fellow junior Odysseas Masmanidis, who won gold with Greece at the FINA Junior World Championships this summer, is also off to a strong start and ranks second on the squad with 13 goals.

SCOUTING THE WAVES

Pepperdine is off to a strong start in 2017 with last week's wins over Redlands, Concordia and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps pushing the Waves' record to a perfect 9-0. Head coach Terry Schroeder's squad went 4-0 at the Bruno Classic to begin the year, earning wins over MIT, Harvard, Bucknell and Brown.
Offense has been a strong suit for the Waves so far this year as they've averaged nearly 13 goals a game. Marko Asic leads the way when it comes to goals with 20 and Mark Urban has been Pepperdine's top distributor with 19 assists.
In the cage, Zack Rhodes has drawn eight starts for the Waves and has a 7.14 goals-against average. Philippe Marco has also seen action at goalkeeper, appearing in four games.
The Bears and Waves met once in 2016 with Cal claiming a 12-7 victory in Malibu. Lazar Andric made 18 saves and Luca Cupido scored five goals to lead Cal in the win.

SCOUTING THE TRITONS

UCSD enters the week with a 2-5 record but already owns a conference win after beating Concordia on Sept. 8. The Tritons spent last weekend in Malibu as part of the GCC vs. WWPA Challenge and dropped matches against UC Irvine and Pepperdine. Before coming to Berkeley, UCSD will take on Fresno Pacific on Thursday.
Connor Turnbow-Lindenstadt has been UCSD's top goal scorer in the early stages of the season and leads the Tritons with 14 goals. He also ranks first on the team in assists with nine. Sam Thompson has been the Tritons' man in the cage and has 61 saves in seven matches.
Cal vs. UC San Diego will be a family affair for the Carniglia clan as brothers Nic and Noah will square off in Berkeley. Nic has four goals so far in his senior season as a Golden Bear while Noah has scored six for the Tritons.
The Bears and Tritons have already met once in 2017 as Cal earned a 12-7 victory as part of the Triton Invitational in La Jolla. Pedro Stellet, Carniglia, Odysseas Masmanidis and Safak Simsek each scored two goals and Spencer Tagg made 11 saves in the win.

NEXT UP
Cal hits the road for the first time in three weeks as they compete in the MPSF Invitational in Los Angeles from Sept. 22-24. The Bears will see their MPSF competition for the first time on the trip as USC, Stanford and UCLA will all be in action as well. Cal hosted last year's MPSF Invite and placed second in a field of 16 teams, scoring a memorable 10-8 win over USC in the semifinals.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Lazar Andric

Luca Cupido

Johnny Hooper

Odysseas Masmanidis

Safak Simsek

Pedro Stellet

Spencer Tagg

California Golden Bears Athletics