LOS ANGELES - One day after a pair of intense, hard-fought matches provided a definite challenge for the Cal men's water polo team, the No. 1-ranked Bears bounced back in fine fashion to take a second-half lead and beat No. 3 Stanford 11-9 in the third-place match of the Mountain Pacific Invitational hosted by USC and Loyola Marymount.

After dropping an overtime thriller to UCLA in Saturday's semifinal round, Cal (11-1) returned to the pool for what figured to be another close contest against a MPSF foe. This time, the Bears didn't wait around to establish a lead as goals by Nikos Delagrammatikas, Odysseas Masmanidis and Johnny Hooper gave Cal a 3-0 advantage right away.

Stanford whittled that lead to one by the end of the period and a goal by Reid Chase with two seconds left in the half gave the Cardinal a 5-4 lead at the midway point. 

Cal took the lead back with an emphatic move forward in the third period. Hooper evened the count at 5 and, after Stanford added a goal to go back in front, Luca Cupido brought the score back to neutral again with a goal of his own. About a minute and a half later, Ethan Wojciechowski put the Bears up 7-6 and Hooper notched a hat trick with 2:06 left in the period to make it 8-6.

Stanford drew to within one by the end of the third period but Cupido re-established momentum in Cal's corner by scoring the first two goals of the fourth to put the Bears ahead 10-7 with 4:34 left to play. Hooper finished the Cal scoring by converting his fourth goal with 12 seconds left and the Bears finished the weekend with three wins in four chances against a field that included 14 ranked teams.

After making 17 saves against UCLA on Saturday, Kevin Le Vine returned to the cage for Cal on Sunday and made 10 more stops to earn the win. The Bears' senior goalkeeper also had three steals to lead a Cal defense that finished the match with 10 steals as a group.

With a team-high four goals on Sunday, Hooper finished the weekend with 12 in four matches. Cupido added a hat trick against the Cardinal to end the tournament with nine goals of his own. Nicholas Carniglia, Wojciechowski, Delagrammatikas and Masmanidis scored a goal apiece in the win.

Cal returns to Southern California on Saturday to take on UC Santa Barbara in the Bears' only match of the week. Game time is set for noon. Action returns to Spieker Aquatics Complex on Oct. 4 when Santa Clara visits for a 4:30 p.m. match that will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks.