Bears At Home For Early-Season Challenges

Saturday, September 14

Berkeley, CA

10:30 AM

California

UC Davis

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9/12/2019 8:30 AM | Men's Water Polo

Weekly Release (PDF)UC Davis Live Stats (FOSH)Pacific Live Stats (FOSH)

No. 5 Cal Opens Home Slate Against Pair Of Nationally-Ranked Foes

By: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – After going 3-1 at last week's season-opening Triton Invitational, the No. 5 Cal men's water polo team plays its first pair of home matches at Spieker Aquatics Complex against No. 11 UC Davis and No. 6 Pacific on Saturday and Sunday.

Game times are set for 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Both matches will have live stats provided on FOSH.

UC Davis (2-2) and Pacific (1-0) will be Cal's fourth and fifth consecutive nationally-ranked foes in the early stages of the 2019 season. The two-match home stand continues a busy week for Cal, which hosted Italian professional club, Pro Recco, in an exhibition on Wednesday.

WEEKEND OUTLOOK
Opponents: No. 11 UC Davis (2-2) | No. 6 Pacific (1-0)
Dates/Times: 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 14 | 1 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 15
Location: Berkeley, Calif. (Spieker Aquatics Complex)
Live Stats: FOSH | UC Davis | Pacific
Live Video: N/A

ABOUT UC DAVIS
The Aggies enter their weekend contest with California at 2-2 overall, having also played in the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego on Sept. 7-8. UC Davis dominated Chapman with a 22-5 victory in its season opener before suffering consecutive losses to No. 5 Long Beach State and No. 9 UC San Diego – the first of which was a 13-12, double-overtime defeat. A 14-13 win against No. 14 Loyola Marymount ended UC Davis' weekend on a strong note.

ABOUT PACIFIC
Pacific opened its 2019 campaign with a 16-11 victory against San Jose State at Chris Kjeldsen Pool in Stockton last Saturday. The win was Pacific's lone match of the season-opening weekend. Luke Pavillard and Jeremie Cote both tallied four goals and one assist in the match. Cal is 6-1 against the Tigers since the 2015 season and has won five consecutive matches in the head-to-head series.

BETWEEN THE PIPES
Freshman Adrian Weinberg emerged as Cal's starting goalkeeper after a three-man battle for the position during preseason camp. The Oak Park, Calif., product started all four of the Bears' matches in La Jolla and played a total of 10 quarters. Weinberg tallied 32 saves, including 10 against 11 shots in his collegiate debut vs. Whittier College and 14 against UC Irvine in the weekend finale. Weinberg beat out senior Bernardo Carelli and sophomore Anthony Rethans for the starting role. Both Carelli and Rethans saw action as reserves at the Triton Invite.

CAPTAIN HOOVER
Fifth-year senior center Jordan Hoover will serve as Cal's team captain for the 2019 campaign. The native of Moraga, Calif. netted nine goals and added two assists during the Bears' first weekend of action at the Triton Invite.

LUCKY LEFTY
Senior attacker Safak Simsek is the team's leading career goal scorer (119 goals) and will be relied upon as an offensive focal point this fall. The left-hander is coming off his most productive offensive season in 2018 with 47 goals and 52 assists, both career-bests. Simsek, a native of Istanbul, Turkey, earned a slew of postseason awards in 2018 as he was named to the ACWPC All-America Third Team, the MPSF All-Tournament Team and the All-MPSF Second Team.

GREEK LIGHTNING
Cal will continue to have a Greek presence on the team in 2019 in the form of junior Nikos Delagrammatikas and freshman Nikolaos Papanikolaou. Delagrammatikas had one goal, three assists, five steals, two field blocks and one ejection earned at last weekend's Triton Invite. Papanikolaou – the Junior World MVP for Greece at the 2018 Youth World Championships in Hungary – scored seven goals with one assist and had 11 ejections earned in his first four collegiate matches.

A PAIR OF JOURNEYMEN
Junior transfers Jasmin Kolasinac and James Parker Allen have been with one another each step of the way throughout their prep and collegiate water polo careers. The duo played together at King's College in Auckland, New Zealand before both enrolled at Wagner College (Staten Island, N.Y.). After two years with the Seahawks, both transferred to Cal and will play their first seasons with the Bears this fall.

Kolasinac, who was a decorated goal scorer at Wagner with 203 goals in two seasons, made a swift impact for the Bears last weekend. He netted seven goals and added six assists for a total of 13 points in his first four matches.

LAST TIME OUT – TRITON INVITE
The Golden Bears went 3-1 at the season-opening, UC San Diego-hosted Triton Invitational on Sept. 7-8 in La Jolla, Calif. Cal opened the weekend with a 22-2 win over Whittier College and a 14-9 victory against No. 14 Loyola Marymount on Saturday. The Bears' first match on Sunday ended in an uncommon early-season loss to No. 7 UC Santa Barbara, but they responded resiliently to cap the tournament with an 11-6 victory over No. 13 UC Irvine.

Simsek totaled 18 points on 12 goals and six assists over the four matches to lead Cal offensively. Kolasinac (seven goals, six assists) in leading the Bears' offensive presence.

NEXT TIME
The Bears will take a short trip to UC Davis for the Aggie Roundup next weekend. Cal is slated to play four matches on Sept. 21-22 against California Baptist, San Jose State, host UC Davis and Santa Clara. More information about the Aggie Roundup can be found at CalBears.com later next week.

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