For nearly a decade, a California triumvirate has dominated collegiate men’s water polo. USC, UCLA, and Cal have each claimed the last nine NCAA Championships and are perennially ranked No. 1, 2 and 3 in the nation.
They’ve traded wins back and forth, often by the slightest of margins. And this weekend, the NorCal Invitational will bring all three of them together.
The tournament brings together 16 teams from the MPSF conference, which holds an unrivaled dominance in water polo. The top nine nationally ranked teams hail from the MPSF and all will enter the weekend with undefeated records.
The No. 3 Bears travel to Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center from Sept. 15-16 for the tournament. Cal will first face Air Force on Saturday at 10:50 a.m., and if it wins, goes on to play the winner between UC Irvine and UCSD at 6:15 p.m. If it makes it to the semifinals and finals, Cal will likely face UCLA and USC, respectively.
The Bears will face their first challenge of the year without last year’s standout seniors. Ivan Rackov was a finalist for the Peter J. Cutino Award last year and led the MPSF in scoring with 70 goals in 25 games. The first-team All-American also paced the Bears with 64 assists and 58 steals. Luka Saponjic, Cal’s second highest scorer, graduated after a 41-goal, 38-assist final season.
Thus far, younger players have stepped up to fill the gap. Junior Collin Smith exploded onto the season with 19 goals in five games at the Princeton Invitational last weekend. He also claimed the MPSF Player of the Week award for his efforts.
Sophomore Aleksa Saponjic, who played for Serbia in the 2012 London Olympics, will look to take more of a starring role this year. As the third leading scorer on the Bears last year, he will have to replace his brother Luka’s numbers to keep the team scoring consistently.
“Cal has had great players, you don’t just replace them,” head coach Kirk Everist said. “But new players will step up and I expect nothing less from the younger kids that’ll be here this year.”
Replenishing the offense will be especially critical if the Bears reach No. 1 USC in the tournament final. The Trojans have been Cal’s biggest rival in the last decade and have also claimed the last four NCAA Championships.
But before the Bears can even consider dealing with the Trojans, they likely have to defeat the Bruins first. Cal’s games last year against UCLA have been the toughest to handle – the Bears only won two of four last year. In the last NorCal Invitational, the Bruins defeated the Bears 6-5 in the semifinals. In the MPSF semifinals, UCLA edged past Cal, 7-6, in the final minute of overtime.
Even though the tournament doesn’t contribute to their record, the Bears do admit that they have a lot of pride on the line. Scoring a win against USC or UCLA would be a major boost to the team’s confidence, especially for the younger players.
“We come from the most storied program in water polo,” team captain Marin Balarin said. “After we missed NCAAs at our own pool after losing it in the year before – everyone’s looking at us like we’re huge underdogs and we’re looking to prove them wrong.”
Vincent Tzeng covers men’s water polo. Contact him at [email protected]
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