Things could have gone better for the Cal men’s water polo team this season. But in another way, things could have gone so much worse for the Bears.
The Bears entered the season No. 3 behind No. 1 USC and No. 2 UCLA with enough talent to give the four-time defending champion Trojans a run for their money this year.
Then everything fell apart.
Sophomore goalie Jon Sibley began the season with a concussion that kept him out of much of the summer’s training. The loss of Sibley was not the deadly knockout blow as the Bears still had last season’s starting goalie senior Justin Parsons in the reserves.
Then on Sept. 17, two weeks into the season, head coach Kirk Everist removed five players from the team for code of conduct violations. The expelled players included Parsons, as well as offensive star Max Bergeson.
“Those guys were teammates and our friends,” senior captain Marin Balarin said after the removal of the five players.“But we have to keep moving on. We don’t have time at this point in the season to lose focus.”
The Bears did lose focus and their winning groove — at least for parts of the season. Two weekends after placing fourth at the NorCal Invitational, in its first test without the five players, Cal finished disappointingly in seventh-place at the SoCal Invitational on Sept. 30. The losses to Pacific and UC Irvine dropped the Bears to No. 7— Cal’s lowest in five years.
But as the Bears struggled, there were moments of hope.
The Bears led the No. 1 Trojans for most of the game at Los Angeles before USC took a late lead to win, 7-6. Sibley, in his first game since the injury, broke out with 12 saves. Redshirt freshman Colin Mulcahy scored two goals and held USC’s leading scorer Nikola Vavic to just one goal.
Just a week after the SoCal Invitational disaster, Cal took No. 2 UCLA to sudden death double overtime, before falling 10-9 on a penalty shot. On Oct. 20, the Bears crushed then-No. 4 Stanford 14-8 in the Big Splash.
But again, Cal faltered back, losing to Long Beach State in an MPSF conference match at home 11-10.
Things turned around for the Bears as they won five straight games leading into the MPSF conference tournament last weekend in Los Angeles.
In the first game of the tournament, the Bears defeated No. 7 Pepperdine 11-9, but an altercation after a goal by junior leading scorer Collin Smith lead to the two game suspension of Smith and Cal’s second leading scorer, sophomore Aleksa Saponjic.
Without their two top scorers, the Bears met No. 2 UCLA in the semi-finals. Thanks to three goals from sophomore center Matt Russell and two each from senior Mason Cox and junior Hunter Gettelfinger, the Bears upset the Bruins 12-9.
“Its about the team,” Smith said after the Bears beat the Bruins without him. “It’s not about two players. They have just as much chemistry with us in or out of the pool.”
That was not the case in the final against No. 1 USC, however as they trailed the Trojans all game. At one point in the third quarter, the Bears trailed the Trojans 6-1, before Cal brought the score to 7-5 entering the fourth quarter. But the USC defense held the Bears silent and secured the undefeated Trojans the MPSF title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament this weekend.
Hours after the loss, Cal’s season came to its official end as the NCAA awarded the single “at-large” NCAA tournament bid to UCLA.
But despite not meeting their early season goals, the Bears had little to be ashamed about. Things could have been much worse.
“I am as proud of this team as any team I have ever been a part of,” Everist said.
Warren Laufer covers men’s water polo. Contact him at [email protected]
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I understand that this year, Cal team was depleted but the water polo team seems to be on the wrong trajectory. Before Everist, Cal was always the team to beat. For past 3 years, It’s the USC that has become the team to beat. Cal season has been full of ups and downs and very inconsistent. With all their problems, Cal managed to crush Stanford and UCLA but failed miserably failed against teams like Long Beach State. Hope things change soon.