BERKELEY – The No. 7 California men's water polo team garnered four All-MPSF honors, led by first-team selection Max Casabella, the conference announced on Wednesday.

Joining Casabella as repeat all-conference honorees were two-time selections George Avakian and Albert Ponferrada – both of whom made the second team – and honorable mention Jake Howerton.

Casabella was one of three MPSF players to earn a fourth career All-MPSF nod, making the first team for the third straight time. He is the only Golden Bear that has surpassed 25 goals this season, with his totals of 53 goals and 75 points both ranking fourth in the conference heading into the postseason. After back-to-back five-goal performances in wins over No. 17 Santa Clara and then-No. 1 Stanford in October, Casabella was named the MPSF Player of the Week for the first time in his career. On Sept. 8, he poured in a career-high seven goals against No. 9 Pepperdine.

Taking center stage in Cal's offense following the departure of three-time National Player of the Year Nikolaos Papanikolaou, Avakian has produced heavily on the inside, racking up a league-leading 63 earned exclusions. He also ranks fourth on the team in goals (21) and eighth in the MPSF with nine field blocks. Both of the senior's hat tricks this season came against top-six ranked teams.

No player in the MPSF West had more assists during the regular season than Ponferrada, who has dished out 41 helpers to go with his 15 goals. He has three six-assist games as a junior, his most recent one coming on Nov. 2, when Cal scored an opponent season-high 14 goals against No. 1 UCLA.

After coming on strong in the second half of last season, Howerton made his debut on the 2023 All-MPSF Team. He has continued to produce in a team captain role during his senior year, getting hot down the stretch once again. His last month of play was highlighted by a clutch equalizing goal in the Bears' Oct. 19 win over Stanford, followed by a five-goal outburst against the Bruins on Nov. 2 and a second straight hat trick the very next day against No. 4 USC.

The Bears will head to Los Angeles this weekend to face Augustana in the opening round of the MPSF Championships at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center.

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