California Golden Bears Athletics
Saturday, September 29
Irvine, CA
1:00 PM
California
at
UC Irvine
Bears Set For SoCal Swing
9/27/2018 10:48 AM | Men's Water Polo
No. 4 Cal Heads To No. 13 UC Irvine, No. 11 Pepperdine
BERKELEY - Action shifts to Southern California for the Cal men's water polo team as the No. 4-ranked Bears head to UC Irvine and Pepperdine for a pair of matches against former conference foes. Play starts Saturday with a 1 p.m. match against the No. 13 Anteaters and shifts to the coast on Sunday for a 1 p.m. contest against the No. 11 Waves in Malibu. Links to Live video (Pepperdine only) and live stats (both) can be found on the Schedule page at CalBears.com.
Cal spent last week a little closer to home as the Bears earned a 16-9 victory at Santa Clara and picked up a 22-1 win over San Jose State in Berkeley. The two-game stretch marked the return of Johnny Hooper to the starting lineup as the senior from Los Angeles rejoined the Bears after missing the first nine matches while away on international duty with Team USA.
Entering week five, several Golden Bears rank among the MPSF stat leaders. Bernardo Carelli is third in both saves per game (12.36) and goals against average (7.41) while three Bears - Vassilis Tzavaras, Odysseas Masmanidis and Safak Simsek - rank in the top 10 in scoring.
LAST TIME OUT
Johnny Hooper made his 2018 debut a memorable one with a six-goal outburst in Cal's 16-9 victory at Santa Clara. Three days later, he scored six more goals in Cal's 22-1 win over San Jose State and in the process passed head coach Kirk Everist for fourth on Cal's all-time scoring list. Hooper wasn't the only bright spot for the Bears as a host of players contributed to each victory. Six different Bears scored multiple goals in the win over SJSU with Safak Simsek recording his third hat trick of the season. 10 different Bears scored at Santa Clara and 11 found the net against the Spartans.
SCOUTING UC IRVINE
Cal returns to the Bay Area for its next five match days, beginning with a trip to Stanford for the MPSF Invitational from Oct. 12-14. Play returns to Spieker Aquatics Complex on Oct. 20 when the Bears host UC Santa Barbara at noon and the annual Alumni Game at 2 p.m. MPSF play opens on Oct. 27 when UCLA visits Berkeley for a game that will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks. Game time has yet to be announced.
Cal spent last week a little closer to home as the Bears earned a 16-9 victory at Santa Clara and picked up a 22-1 win over San Jose State in Berkeley. The two-game stretch marked the return of Johnny Hooper to the starting lineup as the senior from Los Angeles rejoined the Bears after missing the first nine matches while away on international duty with Team USA.
Entering week five, several Golden Bears rank among the MPSF stat leaders. Bernardo Carelli is third in both saves per game (12.36) and goals against average (7.41) while three Bears - Vassilis Tzavaras, Odysseas Masmanidis and Safak Simsek - rank in the top 10 in scoring.
LAST TIME OUT
Johnny Hooper made his 2018 debut a memorable one with a six-goal outburst in Cal's 16-9 victory at Santa Clara. Three days later, he scored six more goals in Cal's 22-1 win over San Jose State and in the process passed head coach Kirk Everist for fourth on Cal's all-time scoring list. Hooper wasn't the only bright spot for the Bears as a host of players contributed to each victory. Six different Bears scored multiple goals in the win over SJSU with Safak Simsek recording his third hat trick of the season. 10 different Bears scored at Santa Clara and 11 found the net against the Spartans.
SCOUTING UC IRVINE
- The Anteaters enter Saturday's contest with a 5-5 record after splitting a pair of matches last week. Last time out, head coach Marc Hunt's squad earned a 14-4 win over Concordia and dropped a 14-7 decision to No. 2 UCLA.
- Jason Evezard enters this week's play as UC Irvine's top scorer with 34 goals. Jack Trush ranks second with 19 goals. Byron Rivers has started every match at goalkeeper for the Anteaters and had 13 saves in the win over Concordia.
- Cal and UC Irvine have already met once in 2018 with the Bears earning a 15-12 victory over the Anteaters at the season-opening Triton Invitational in San Diego. Odysseas Masmanidis led Cal with four goals while Bernardo Carelli made a career-high 21 saves and Vassilis Tzavaras contributed nine assists. Evezard scored three goals to lead UC Irvine.
- The Waves enter Sunday's matchup with a 6-5 overall record and head coach Terry Schroeder's squad will look to snap a three-game skid after losses to UCLA, UC Santa Barbara and Stanford. Pepperdine's last wins came at the Inland Empire Classic where the Waves scored a combined 42 goals in wins over Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer.
- Chris Dilworth has led the way offensively for Pepperdine this season with 27 goals in 11 games. Sean Ferrari has also scored 21 goals and seven different players have a double-digit goal total. In the cage, John Claude Marco and Kyle McKenney have split time with Marco owning four wins and McKenney two.
- Cal and Pepperdine squared off twice in 2017 with the Bears earning an 8-6 win in Berkeley and a 12-10 victory as part of the MPSF Invitational at USC. Eight different Bears scored a goal in the home win while Masmanidis scored four goals to lead the way in Los Angeles.
Cal returns to the Bay Area for its next five match days, beginning with a trip to Stanford for the MPSF Invitational from Oct. 12-14. Play returns to Spieker Aquatics Complex on Oct. 20 when the Bears host UC Santa Barbara at noon and the annual Alumni Game at 2 p.m. MPSF play opens on Oct. 27 when UCLA visits Berkeley for a game that will be broadcast live by Pac-12 Networks. Game time has yet to be announced.
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