Oct. 19, 1997
NorCal Water Polo Tournament Recap
The California men's water polo team had a busy schedule last week, playing six matches in four days. At Diablo Valley College, the Bears defeated Long Beach State, 19-8, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Oct. 16 and Massachusetts, 12-7, Oct. 17.
Cal then travelled to the NorCal Tournament where it defeated Brown, 12-2, and Pacific, 12-3, Saturday, Oct. 18 at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA. In the Brown match, the Bears leading scorer was junior two-meter Phinney Gardner, who tallied five points, including a two-point goal. Junior Ryan Flynn also chipped in three goals for Cal. Against Pacific, the Bears were paced by three goals apiece from junior drivers Brad Kittredge and Pat Cochran.
On Sunday, Oct. 19, the Bears fell in the semifinals of the NorCal Tournament, 9-6, to USC and lost to Pepperdine, 9-6, in the third-place match. Against USC, who Cal had defeated twice this season, the Bears jumped to a 3-2 lead after the first period, but was outscored 3-1 in the second period and was never able to get back into the match. The Bears leading scorers were senior Brent Albright and sophomore Albert Won with two goals apiece.
In the third-place match against Pepperdine, who had lost its first match of the season to Stanford (4-2) earlier that day, the Bears fell behind 4-2 after the opening period and was again never able to get back into the match. Won was Cal's leading scorer with two goals and Flynn, Peter Stern, Ramsey Ross and Eldad Hazor each added a goal for the Bears.
Cal is now 13-4 overall and 4-1 in MPSF play.
The leading scorer for the Bears in the six matches was Gardner, who tallied 12 points. Gardner was Cal's leading scorer with four goals versus Long Beach State and five goals in the Brown match. He is now the Bears top scorer for the year with 32 points.
Another leading scorer for Cal was Flynn, who had 11 goals last week. Flynn also had four goals against Long Beach State and was the Bears leading scorer with three goals versus Massachusetts.
Cal next travels to UC Irvine, Friday, Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. and UCLA, Saturday, Oct. 25 at 10:30 a.m.
