The mission for the No. 1 Cal men's water polo team at this weekend's Navy Open was to get its feet wet against the best east-coast teams and pick up a few wins along the way.

The Bears can consider their mission accomplished as experienced and young players alike found playing time en route to four consecutive wins against Bucknell, No. 10 Navy, No. 12 St. Francis and Johns Hopkins.

"Overall it was a good way to start the season," coach Kirk Everist said. "We got to play some pretty good teams from back east … and I thought the guys responded pretty well. We got some good performances from some of our younger guys and the older guys stepped up like I thought they would."

The closest game according to the scoreboard was a 10-6 win against St. Francis. However, the Terriers' final two goals came within the last couple of minutes of the match.

"We were in control of the game," Everist said. "We had a little trouble offensively in that game, but our defense, holding them to four goals in 30 minutes, was pretty good. I'm happy with that."

The defense against St. Francis was led by sophomore goalkeeper Jacob McIntosh, who had a career-high 15 saves in the game. On Saturday, he claimed 19 total saves to go with three steals in an 18-6 win against Bucknell and a 13-4 victory versus Navy.

"He stepped up and … (directed) the defense," Everist said. "We were able to hold teams down and he made the saves he had to make. Overall I was really pleased with his performance as a collegiate water polo player in a starting role."

The St. Francis game also featured three goals from senior Frank Reynolds. Even as the team was struggling, Reynolds managed to pour in the goals as he did throughout the tournament.

"Frank came out and scored 11 goals on 17 shots in this tournament," Everist said. "He understands where we need him to pick it up offensively and he definitely has the skill set to do it."

Being one of the go-to guys on the offensive end is a new role for the senior. With the offensive firepower that Cal has had during the past few years, Reynolds served more as a faciltator.

"I just fall into the system," Reynolds said. "You've got to trust the system because it won't fail you."

Fellow senior Trent Calder also seems to be coming into his own as of late. Everist was impressed with Calder's well-rounded performance of five assists and nine goals, four of which came in an 18-4 blowout of Johns Hopkins.

In general, the Bears' system seemed to have very few holes even early in the season.

Cal looked spectacular against the other ranked team in the tournament and the host of the competition, Navy, even though the game would have seemed to be a stiff test on paper.

"They had their home crowd riled up," Reynolds said. "The had all their freshmen there and they heckled us."

The blowout was a little surprising, considering that only last year Navy hung tough with the Bears in an 8-5 loss in the NCAA tournament semifinals.

This time around the key difference was the defensive play of Cal junior Scott Cruikshank.

Cruikshank was given the tall order of defending senior All-American Michael Mulvey, and he all but shut down the Midshipmen's two-meter man. Mulvey scored only one goal during the match.

"We were able to control most of the games and played really solid defense, which is a good sign this early in the season," Everist said.

Tags: FRANK REYNOLDS, KIRK EVERIST, CAL MEN'S WATER POLO