DAVIS, Calif. – A mid-week trip to UC Davis offered another chance for the Cal men's water polo team to develop its early season rhythm and the Bears took advantage as eight different players scored a goal en route to a 13-10 victory over the Aggies at Schaal Aquatics Center.

With senior Johnny Hooper away on national team duty and fellow upperclassman Odysseas Masmanidis sidelined for the evening, Thursday's match offered a chance for Cal to turn to others to fill the scoring void. Early on, the offense ran through senior Vassilis Tzavaras as a save by Bernardo Carelli sent Cal on the counter attack and Tzavaras converted to make it 1-0.

Jordan Hoover took the initiative for Cal's next two goals, scoring once at full strength and once on the 6 on 5 to make it 3-0 Bears. Freshman Jack Deely and redshirt freshman David Feingold added goals by the end of the period and Cal held a 5-3 lead after eight minutes.

The Bears extended that advantage over the next eight minutes with Tzavaras and Nikos Delagrammatikas scoring to make it 7-3. Tzavaras eventually went to the bench with two ejections but Spencer Farrar scored from a tight angle and Safak Simsek put a pair of shots home, one from long range that elicited a fist pump towards the Cal bench and Cal took a 10-5 lead to halftime.

Cal earned a 3-2 advantage in the third period, led by two more goals from Tzavaras and one by Mateus Stellet. UC Davis narrowed the gap in the final period but Cal's lead was large enough to run the clock out over the final few minutes.

Carelli played the first three periods in the cage and made nine saves. Spencer Tagg took over for the final eight minutes and stopped two shots. Tzavaras led the Bears on the scoresheet with four goals while Hoover and Simsek each scored a pair. Simsek also added five assists.

"It was an opportunity for different players to play in a good environment. We got a lot of freshmen in that game, probably eight freshmen," Cal head coach Kirk Everist said. "We scored 13 goals, which is good. We gave up a few more than we would like but it was a good experience without Ody or Hooper. Marko (Valecic) didn't play either, so we were down three guys who are going to give us a lot of minutes. This first part of the season is going to be an interesting one but we should get Ody back on Saturday. He probably could've played today if we really, really, really needed him but it was better to give him a rest and get him ready for Saturday. Same goes for Marko. We should be at full strength without Johnny on Saturday and we'll have another great test in a hostile environment."

Cal returns to action on Saturday when it makes the trip to Stockton for a 7 p.m. match at No. 5-ranked Pacific. Live stats from the match will be available through TheFosh.net and live updates can be found by following Cal Water Polo on Twitter (@CalWaterPolo). The Bears make their 2018 home debut on Sept. 14 when Long Beach State visits Spieker Aquatics Complex for a 6 p.m. contest.