SAN DIEGO, Calif. – A pair of wins made the first day of competition for the 2017 Cal men's water polo team a successful one as the No. 1-ranked Bears picked up a 16-1 victory over Loyola Marymount and beat host UC San Diego 12-7 to open the Triton Invitational..

Cal (2-0) returns to the pool on Sunday at 9:15 a.m. to take on No. 8 Long Beach State. The Bears will play a second match at 1:15 p.m. against No. 6 UC Santa Barbara to wrap up their stay in San Diego.

Cal 16, Loyola Marymount 1

An early wake-up call didn't stop the Bears from getting off to a fast start in the first match of the season as three goals in the first period gave way to a 9-0 halftime lead and an eventual victory over the No. 17-ranked Lions.

Cal's senior captains did the honor of getting the year started as Luca Cupido converted the first goal of the season and Pedro Stellet followed with one of his own. Cupido added another with 3:18 left in the period to give the Bears the 3-0 advantage.

The offense continued for Cal in the second period with both returners and newcomers finding the net Spencer Farrar converted twice in his first game as a Golden Bear and freshman Cameron Wright scored his first collegiate goal to complement goals by Cupido, Vassilis Tzavaras and Jordan Hoover. The six-goal period put Cal in control at the midway point.

Goals from Farrar and Wright pushed the lead to 11-1 after three periods and the Bears finished the effort off with five more in the final eight minutes. Farrar and Wright each ended the match with four goals to lead all scorers while Cupido scored three, Hoover added two and Stellet, Tzavaras and redshirt freshman Cade Kruse contributed one apiece. Senior Kevin Le Vine drew the start in goal and made 10 saves to go along with two steals for the Bears.

Cal 12, UC San Diego 7

The No. 12-ranked Tritons jumped out to a two-goal advantage right away but a strong run of play from that point until halftime gave the momentum back to the Bears as they eventually pulled away for the second win of the day.

After UC San Diego took the lead with a pair of opening goals, Cal responded with two of its own to tie the score after eight minutes of action. Only a week removed from competing with Team USA at the World University Games in Taiwan, Nicholas Carniglia got the Bears on the board and Cupido followed with his first goal of the match to make it 2-2.

Cal built its advantage in the second period. Farrar took just 31 seconds to put the Bears ahead and a few minutes later Odysseas Masmanidis pushed the lead to two with a goal of his own. Tzavaras added a goal with 1:16 left before half and Cal took a 5-2 lead to the break.

UC San Diego narrowed the gap in the third period, at one point cutting Cal's advantage to just one goal, but the Bears struck again just before time expired as Stellet found the range with 27 seconds left to give the Bears a 7-5 lead. The Tritons would get no closer as Cal scored five more times in the fourth to close out the win.

Stellet, Carniglia, Masmanidis and sophomore Safak Simsek each scored twice to lead the Bears on the scoresheet. Farrar, Tzavaras, Cupido and freshman Nikos Delagrammatikas added one apiece to round out the scoring. Spencer Tagg got the assignment in the cage and made 11 saves while also adding two steals.