It all came down to a rule. In 2005, when Ivan Rackov was 16, the Water Polo Association of Serbia reconfigured its age groups for tournament eligibility, and by technical error Rackov’s generation didn’t fit with any eligible group. For the next year, Rackov’s club team didn’t compete. Since his Read More…
Water polo players tread water; it’s an accepted fact of the game. Touching bottom is a foreign and overall unwelcome experience. Yet in the second and fourth quarters of Saturday’s game against No. 5 UCSB, whenever a No. 3 Cal men’s water polo team member took a shot, his feet Read More…
A small month-long window is as close as the No. 3 Cal men’s water polo team gets to slowing down. It started with an 11-8 home victory over No. 9 Pepperdine on Oct. 21 and spreads out across five matches until an away game at UC Davis on Nov. 12. Read More…
It was hard to tell if that first goal of the day came as a surprise to the No. 4 Cal men’s water polo team. Either way, less than two minutes into the first quarter, the ball sailed past Cal’s goalie into the back of the net, giving one of Read More…
In the world of collegiate men’s water polo, there is a wide chasm that splits the MPSF. The mere spectator, overly reliant on stats and rankings, wouldn’t even know it existed. After all, the MPSF is the nation’s most cutthroat conference, and all nine teams have held a top-10 slot Read More…
For Collin Smith, the goal was easy. Down 2-3 to No. 6 Pepperdine in the first quarter, the No. 4 Cal men’s water polo team was setting up a play to tie the match. The team was pressing the opposing goal and working the ball on the right side of Read More…
For the No. 4 Cal men’s water polo team, this Friday’s 6 p.m. match will be played amidst the shadows from the buildings that surround the Spieker Aquatics pool as the sun sets across the Bay. But the bigger shadow the Bears (14-3, 2-1 MPSF) will have to contend with Read More…
Justin Parsons didn’t earn MPSF Player of the Week last Tuesday for nothing. The starting goalie is the last line of defense on the No. 2 Cal men’s water polo team. In Saturday’s home match against No. 4 USC, Parsons made clutch saves — including taking a ball to the Read More…
With the exception of one extra goal, there was very little difference for the No. 2 Cal men’s water polo team between Friday’s match against No. 3 UCLA and the SoCal semifinal match a week before. At the SoCal Invitational, the Bears (14-2, 2-0 in the MPSF) broke away from Read More…
Rankings never tell the whole story. And in the case of this week’s D-I men’s water polo list, they can be flat-out wrong. The NCAA etched USC at No. 4 in the nation. After the three-time defending national champions stumbled with their first two losses of the season at the Read More…
