The Cal men’s water polo team did not play like the 2012 Bears this weekend.

The No. 6 Bears did not play like a team that has struggled more in the past two months than they had in past five years.

Instead, the Bears took down No. 9 UC Irvine, 12-10, Thursday night at Anteater Pool and No. 4 Pepperdine, 12-9, the following day in Malibu.

The Bears (12-7, 3-3) beat the Anteaters, 12-10, in an MPSF match for their second win in three meetings this season. Cal was led by junior Hunter Gettelfinger’s team-leading four goals and four steals in the Bears’ second conference win of the season.

Sophomore Aleksa Saponjic added three goals and senior team captain Marin Balarin and junior Collin Smith each scored two goals.

Cal also relied heavily on its six-on-five man down defense throughout the game. Sophomore goalie Jon Sibley secured the defense with 11 saves.

“This match was not pretty, but the guys played strong and got a win,” Cal coach Kirk Everist said in a postgame interview. “We had to play a lot of five-man defense tonight and made the plays down the stretch that we need to.”

The Bears did not have much time to celebrate Thursday’s victory as they were back in the pool less than 24 hours later to face Pepperdine.

The Bears’ second MPSF match in as many days was also the team’s second matchup with Pepperdine this season. The Bears rolled over the Waves 12-9 on Sept. 30 at the SoCal Invitational in Santa Barbara.

The Bears once again defeated the Waves by the same score on Friday afternoon. Smith led Cal with five goals to bring his team-leading season total to 53 goals in 19 games.

Sophomore Blake Kelly also got into the scoring action with two goals of his own. Saponjic contributed three assists and junior Giacomo Cupido had three steals.

Sibley was without a save for the entire first half, but the standout goalie came alive in the second half with six saves to bolster the Bears’ defense. Sibley’s highlight of the match was a five-meter penalty shot block to maintain the Bears’ lead in the fourth quarter.

The Bears opened the final quarter with back to back goals to take an 11-7 lead. But, the Waves returned the favor with two consecutive power play goals to bring the score to 11-9. But after Sibley blocked Marco Madaras’ penalty to deny him his fourth goal of the game, the Bears secured one last late goal to finish the game 12-9.

The win marked the Bears’ eighth consecutive win over the Waves, and the Bears’ third MPSF win of the season brought life back to the struggling team.

“Our team came out strong in the first period and set the tempo of the match,” said Everist. “Our man up offense and our man down defense was solid again today, which we will need to continue as we move toward the conference tournament.”

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