BERKELEY – The final push towards the NCAA Championships got off to a good start for the Cal men's water polo team as the Bears opened play at the MPSF Championships with a 27-3 victory over Austin College at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center.

With Friday's win, Cal advances to Saturday's 1 p.m. semifinal against the host Trojans. The Bears carry the No. 3 seed into the contest while USC is the No. 2 seed. The winner of that match will advance to Sunday's 1 p.m. championship while the loser heads to the third-place match at 11 a.m. Links to live stats and video for Saturday's match are available on the Schedule page at CalBears.com and Sunday's matches will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks.

Facing an Austin College side that is in its first year of varsity water polo, Cal (17-5) used a quick start to put Friday's match out of reach. The Bears built an 8-1 lead by the end of one period with Johnny Hooper and Jack Deely scoring a pair of goals each and Spencer Farrar, Vassilis Tzavaras, Safak Simsek and Jordan Hoover each adding one.

The Bears extended their lead to 15-1 by halftime and 21-3 at the end of three periods. Hoover ended the day as Cal's high scorer with five goals while freshman Joe Molina added four of his own.

Tzavaras and Hooper each recorded a hat trick, Farrar, Simsek, Deely, Miles O'Brien-Schridde and Odysseas Masmanidis scored two each and the freshman duo of Marko Valecic and Kaan Gezguc added one apiece. Bernardo Carelli handled the first half in the cage and recorded five saves before Spencer Tagg took over in the second half and made seven saves of his own.