Bears Open MPSF Play With Visit From UCLA

BERKELEY - A stretch of three MPSF matches in three weeks gets underway on Saturday for the Cal men's water polo team as the No. 4-ranked Golden Bears host No. 3 UCLA in the conference opener for both teams. The match is scheduled for a noon start and will be broadcast live on Pac-12 Bay Area, Pac-12 Los Angeles and online at Pac-12.com.

The Bears will get to enjoy their first and only set of back-to-back home games this season when they host the Bruins and they'll look to add another notch in th win column after earning a 13-12 victory over UC Santa Barbara last Sunday. A six-goal performance by Johnny Hooper marked the third time this year that the senior from Los Angeles scored six goals in a game and netted Cal's co-captain his second MPSF Player of the Week honor.

Hooper enters conference play with a 4.11 goal per game average that ranks first in the conference. His 37 goals have come in just nine games and he leads a group of five Cal players (Safak Simsek, Odysseas Masmanidis, Spencer Farrar, Jordan Hoover) who rank in the MPSF's top 25 in goals per game.

LAST TIME OUT
A back and forth battle at Spieker Aquatics Complex went the Bears' way as Johnny Hooper scored six goals and Cal defeated No. 5 UC Santa Barbara 13-12. Tied at 8 late in the third period, Cal re-took the lead just before the end of the period and the Bears maintained that advantage to the end of the game. Hooper's impact wasn't just felt in the scoring column as the senior finished with five steals, three ejections earned, one assist and one block.

IT'S AN HONOR
The Bears have earned their share of credit for a strong start to the season as Cal players have been named MPSF Player of the Week four of the eight weeks this year. Vassilis Tzavaras earned the award after a strong performance at the season-opening Triton Invitational and Safak Simsek added his name to the list one week later thanks to quality efforts at UC Davis and Pacific. Johnny Hooper has won the award twice, first for strong play at UC Irvine and Pepperdine and most recently for a six-goal, five-steal performance against UC Santa Barbara.

SCOUTING UCLA

The Bruins come to Berkeley with a 19-1 overall record and are coming off a bye week with their last games taking place at the MPSF Invitational on Oct. 12-14. Head coach Adam Wright's squad suffered its first loss of the season, an 8-7 defeat at the hands of Stanford, at the tournament.
Offensive balance has been a hallmark for UCLA so far this season with Quinten Osborne (33) and Nicolas Saveljic (32) leading a group of six different players with 20 goals or more.
In the cage, UCLA has gotten contributions from three different players but the tandem of Alex Wolf and Danny Roland has earned the share of the minutes. Wolf has made 12 starts and has made 90 saves while Roland has made six starts with 89 saves. The two are nearly equal in minutes played with Wolf at 294 and Roland at 264.
Cal and UCLA have met once this season with the Bruins claiming a 12-11 victory in the third-place match of the MPSF Invitational. Cal had a chance to tie the score at the buzzer but the Bears' final shot just missed and UCLA escaped with the win. Jordan Hoover led Cal offensively in the win with four goals.

NEXT UP
MPSF play continues next week with a trip to USC. The Bears and Trojans will square off on Saturday at 1 p.m. and the match will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks. The final game of the 2018 regular season is set for Nov. 10 when Stanford visits Spieker Aquatics Complex for the Big Splash. A start time for that match has yet to be announced.

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Players Mentioned

Spencer Farrar

Johnny Hooper

Jordan Hoover

Odysseas Masmanidis

Safak Simsek

Vassilis Tzavaras

California Golden Bears Athletics