Home Opener Highlights Three-Match Week - California Golden Bears Athletics

Friday, September 14

Berkeley, CA

6:00 PM

California

Long Beach State

9/12/2018 11:34 AM | Men's Water Polo

Weekly Notes Aggie Roundup Website

No. 3 Cal Hosts No. 6 Long Beach State, Takes Part In Aggie Roundup

By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY - A pair of hard-fought road wins at UC Davis and Pacific kept the Cal men's water polo team undefeated through two weeks of the 2018 season and the No. 3-ranked Bears will try to keep that momentum going with a busy week of action. Play gets underway on Friday at 6 p.m. when No. 6 Long Beach State visits Spieker Aquatics Complex for Cal's 2018 home opener.

The next day, Cal heads back up the freeway to take part in the Aggie Roundup hosted by UC Davis. The first match of the day will be a rematch from last Saturday as the Bears take on No. 5 Pacific at 10:30 a.m. The day concludes with a 2:15 p.m. match against a No. 9-ranked Harvard team that visited Berkeley as a NCAA Championships participant in 2016.

A hot start to the season has displayed Cal's depth as the Bears have called on contributions from the entire roster through the first six games of the year. 15 different players have scored a goal already and senior Vassilis Tzavaras leads the way with 16. Bernardo Carelli has seized the goalkeeping duties and is averaging 14.10 saves per game.

LAST TIME OUT
Cal built early leads against both UC Davis and Pacific en route to solid wins away from home. Against the Aggies, a 10-5 halftime lead gave the Bears enough room to weather a late charge as Vassilis Tzavaras scored four goals to lead the way. Two days later, Cal held the No. 5-ranked Tigers to just one goal in the first half before Pacific rallied to tie the game at 8 with 4:21 left. The Bears finished with the final three goals of the contest as MPSF Player of the Week Safak Simsek, Odysseas Masmanidis and David Feingold all scored in the final four minutes to provide the final margin of victory.

SCOUTING LONG BEACH STATE

The 49ers have enjoyed a strong start to their 2018 campaign as they come to Berkeley with a 6-1 record and four-match win streak. Most recently, head coach Gavin Arroyo's squad earned three wins at the Inland Empire Classic, outscoring Whittier, La Verne and Chapman by a combined margin of 56-20.
Arroyo, who was a two-time All-American as a player at Cal in the early 1990s and a two-time Olympian shortly thereafter, will not pay his alma mater a visit for Friday's match. Instead, Arroyo will be on the bench in Berlin, Germany as an assistant coach for Team USA at the FINA World Cup. He is joined there by current Cal assistant coach Jeff Tyrrell as well as the Golden Bears' top returning scorer, Johnny Hooper.
Cal and Long Beach State met once in 2017 with Cal earning a 14-7 win at the Triton Invitational. Kevin Le Vine stopped 17 shots in the cage while Luca Cupido and Odysseas Masmanidis each recorded a hat trick.

SCOUTING PACIFIC

Before taking on the Bears in Stockton, the Tigers also made the trek to Providence to compete in the Bruno Classic and head coach James Graham's crew rolled to four dominant wins and a 4-0 record. Pacific scored a combined 77 goals in wins over Brown, St. Francis, MIT and Harvard.
2017-18 Cutino Award finalist Luke Pavillard returns for the Tigers in 2018 and the Australian teamed with Engin Ege Colak to score 40 of Pacific's 77 goals at the Bruno Classic. Pavillard was named Golden Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2017 with 81 goals, 36 assists and 61 steals. He led the Tigers with three goals in Saturday's game against the Bears.
John Hedges returns to give Pacific experience in the cage after starting 22 matches as a freshman in 2017 and Alen Osmanovic returns after starting all 26 games in 2016. Osmanovic made 14 saves in Cal's 11-8 win last Saturday.

SCOUTING HARVARD

Harvard makes the trek west with a 5-2 record. Head coach Ted Minnis' group opened the season with a 15-14 win over then-No. 7 UC Davis and also has victories against Austin, George Washington, Navy and Fordham. The Crimson's losses have come against Pepperdine and Pacific.
Junior Austin Sechrest has established himself as one of Harvard's top offensive options early in the season and is coming off a sophomore campaign in which he earned ACWPC All-America honorable mention. He entered the year with 102 career goals. In the cage, three different players have seen game action with Anthony Ridgley, Nikhil Suri and Noah Hodge all making appearances this season.
The Crimson made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in Berkeley in 2016, qualifying for the Final Four with a win over UC Davis in the play-in game. Harvard returned to NCAA competition in 2017 but fell to USC in the play-in round.

NEXT UP
Cal stays in Northern California for its next two matches with a trip to Santa Clara and a home contest against San Jose State. The Bears head to Sullivan Aquatic Center on Wednesday to take on the Broncos at 6 p.m. Action returns to Spieker Aquatics Complex on Saturday with an 11 a.m. game against the Spartans.