The Cal men’s water polo team did exactly what it was expected to do.
The Bears, ranked No. 4 nationally, opened the season with four wins at the Triton Invitational at UC San Diego this weekend.
And while the wins over the four non-conference opponents were expected, they gave Cal a reason to be happy. The Bears came away without any major injuries, saw balanced scoring and good goalie play, and gave Cal head coach Kirk Everist a number of things he can work on.
“It was a good start,” Everist said. “All in all they had a good weekend and played well at times.”
On Saturday morning, the Bears had their most lopsided win. Cal was led by senior attacker Collin Smith’s four goals in the team’s 21-3 win over the University of Redlands. In total, twelve players scored for the Bears.
The match later that evening against the No. 11 UCSD Tritons proved to be the team’s toughest test of the weekend.
Cal fell behind 2-1 after the first quarter, but outscored the Tritons 5-1 in the second quarter to take the lead, which they held the rest of the match. The Bears won 13-10.
Cal got four goals from senior attacker Hunter Gettelfinger and two each from Smith and sophomore attacker Mitchell Hamilton. Junior goalkeeper Jon Sibley finished the match with 14 saves.
“It was definitely a good test for us as a team,” Gettelfinger said. “San Diego played really hard and made some good shots.”
Sunday’s matches were less of a challenge.
Five players each scored two goals for the Bears in the team’s 17-7 win over No. 13 Loyola Marymount University. Goalkeepers Sibley and senior Michael Boggan combined for 15 saves.
In the afternoon, Cal completed the tournament with a 15-4 win over No. 17 UC Davis. Chandler Jarrels-Stickney led the Bears with four goals and Boggan and Sibley combined for 12 saves.
Everist singled out the play of his team’s youngest players, true freshmen Thomas Carroll and Jarrels-Stickney, who were playing in their first collegiate matches.
“I was pretty impressed with how they did,” said Everist, of the true freshmen. “They were able to find the goal in most every game and play good defense.”
He was also happy with the team’s balanced attack.
On the weekend, Smith led the Bears with eight total goals. Gettelfinger and Jarrels-Stickney each tallied seven.
“We have a lot of players who have the ability to put in a couple goals here or there and take advantage of what we are given,” Everist said. “I don’t anticipate that being different as the season goes on.”
Gettelfinger agreed that the team is off to a strong start offensively.
“I’m feeling pretty good, with just the changes we’ve made this summer and how we are attacking the offensive end of the pool,” he said. “Everyone is initiating and making things happen on their own.”
The Bears now have almost two full weeks to prepare for the team’s first major test of the season when they host the annual NorCal Tournament Sept. 21-22. The 16-team tournament is the first opportunity for the Bears to match-up against the country’s top-ranked teams.
“I think the counter attack and the offensive game allowed us to dictate the tempo in every game we played,” Gettelfinger said. “We are definitely going to want to keep that going for NorCals.”
Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Triton Invitational was held at the University of San Diego. In fact, it was held at UC San Diego.