The enormous pregame cheer that emanated from the Cal men’s water polo team and echoed through Spieker Aquatics Complex Saturday afternoon was deafening.
But after four quarters of regulation, two overtime periods and a sudden death overtime that ended with a penalty shot, it was No. 3 UCLA that celebrated with its fans.
The Bears dominated the first quarter, taking a 4-0 lead after eight minutes. After UCLA coach Adam Wright substituted all six of his starters when sophomore Aleksa Saponjic scored the Bears’ second goal, Saponjic scored again.
The Bears cooled down and the second quarter was a standstill until UCLA sophomore Paul Reynolds broke Cal’s shutout with a little over a minute left in the half. Yet Cal junior Giacamo Cupido responded with a goal on the next possession, giving the Bears a 5-1 lead at halftime.
But the Bruins went on a scoring rampage in the third quarter. The Bears were held to one goal, shakily holding a 6-5 lead into the final quarter.
With his team only up one goal, Balarin began the fourth quarter with a point to put the Bears up, 7-5.
UCLA then scored its sixth point on a power play. An ill-advised Cal lob was blocked by Bruins’ senior goalie Matt Rapacz and UCLA tied it up, 7-7, forcing overtime.
In the first of two overtime periods, UCLA took its first lead of the game when Samuels’ penalty shot and Paul Reynolds’ lob put UCLA up by two points. Cal junior Hunter Gettelfinger scored with five seconds left to bring the deficit to 9-8.
In the second overtime period, Balarin tipped a pass from Cupido into the bottom right corner to tie the game.
After two overtime periods, the game entered sudden death. Sibley blocked a shot from Paul Reynolds, but after weak pass from the Bears led to a steal and a UCLA advantage on the counterattack, Lucas Reynolds turned inside and drew a penalty shot.
The penalty shot matched up a pair of U.S. Junior National team superstars, with Sibley in the goal and Samuels with this shot.
“Me and the big dog, Sibley, go way back,” Samuels said. “It was just another 5 meter — me and Sibs. I tried to get in his mind a little bit.”
Samuels placed his shot into the lower left corner beyond Sibley’s reach, just as he had during the first overtime period.
“I think he was baiting me to go where I ended up going, thinking that he could get there,” Samuels said. “I just threw it and once I saw where he was I knew it was going in.”
The 10-9 loss was just another disappointment in a season in which nothing seems to be going the Bears’ way.
With four one-goal losses to top-four teams, Cal is playing well above its No. 7 rank. The Bears have been waiting for a needed break, and so far, they have not gotten it.
“No matter what Cal’s ranking is, the big four are always going to be Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC,” Samuels said.
Warren Laufer covers men’s water polo. Contact him at [email protected]
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I’m concerned with the downward trend that Cal water polo has taken for past few years. First of all, they start fast but simply give up in the third and fourth quarters. Is it conditioning? lack of confidence? or a combination of multiple factors, I don’t know. I understand that they have a number of players benched but the others are fully capable to perform. Cal team for past several years seem to lack the killer instinct that they used to have under their previous head coach. They’ve forgotten that Cal has won more NCAA tournaments than any other school but that’s not their current attitude. They’ve lost their mojo. Losing to Pacific and Irvine is absolutely unacceptable.
I just hope Cal players and the coaching staff recognize the tradition and the stature associated with Cal water polo and begin to play a bit more with a sense of urgency and pride.