No. 7 Cal Prepares For Final Home Games
Bears Host Nation’s Top 2 Teams On Senior Weekend
at SPIEKER AQUATICS COMPLEX | BERKELEY
LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM (OVERNGHT)
SUNDAY, NOV. 3
NO. 7 CAL VS. NO. 2 USC | 1 P.M. PT
at SPIEKER AQUATICS COMPLEX | BERKELEY
LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM (OVERNGHT)
The No. 7 California men's water polo team (11-8, 1-2 MPSF) is set to welcome the nation's top-two ranked teams this weekend for the Golden Bears' final home games of the season. This will be the second time in Berkeley for both No. 1 UCLA (18-1) and No. 2 USC (16-3), both of which advanced to the final of the Overnght MPSF Invitational in September. The Bears have been defeated by the Bruins by five goals twice this season and fell to the Trojans 16-13 in their only meeting in early October. Cal's leading scorer on the year is Max Casabella, whose 48 goals rank fourth in the conference.
BEAR NECESSITIES
SENIOR DAY
This will be the final weekend of home games for Cal's 11-man senior class. The Bears' pregame senior day ceremony will be split between both games, with half the group being honored on Saturday and the other half on Sunday.
TO THE MAX
Casabella earned his first MPSF Player of the Week award following the Bears' last set of games, as he led Cal with back-to-back five-goal performances in wins of 14-10 over No. 18 Santa Clara on Oct. 17 and 13-11 against No. 1 Stanford on Oct. 19. It was the second time in his career he scored five times in back-to-back games, giving him 10 career outings with five or more goals. Prior to the win over Santa Clara, Casabella's previous two scoring outbursts came when he set a career high with seven against No. 4 Pepperdine on Sept. 8 – tied for the second-most goals in a single game of any Bear since 1992 – and when he put away a game-high five goals in Cal's 13-12 win over UCLA in last year's NCAA championship game. Two weeks ago, the three-time ACWPC All-American was named to the Cutino Award Watch List for the second straight year.
TAKING DOWN NO. 1
Saturday's matchup with UCLA will be the third time this season Cal is facing the nation's No. 1 ranked team. In their first two tries, the Bears fell to the Bruins 12-7 in the Overnght MPSF Invitational semifinal round. On Oct. 19, Cal upset then-No. 1 Stanford in dramatic fashion at Spieker Aquatics Complex, thanks to Casabella's five goals and a huge day from redshirt freshman goalkeeper Max LaGrange, who scored a remarkable length-of-the-pool goal and tallied 10 saves to help spark a late comeback win. The Bears ended the game on a 3-0 run in the final three minutes.
HOT START
Casabella's Spanish counterpart Roberto Valera owns the same distinction of winning an NCAA title and being named an All-American in each of his first three years at Cal. Despite missing significant time this season, Valera's scoring start to the year still has him with the second-most goals (20) on the team, tied with junior William Kelly. Valera led Cal in goals in three of its first four games, highlighted by an eight-goal outburst against Pepperdine that saw him tie for the third-most goals in a game in MPSF history and went down as the most scored by a Cal player since its first year in the MPSF in 1992.
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
It's been a career year for Kelly, who became the fourth Bear this year to record a five-goal game in Cal's win over UC Merced on Oct. 12. He reached 20 goals for the first time in the Bears' 11-9 loss to No. 6 Princeton in their last outing.
Since becoming the team's starting goalkeeper three games ago, LaGrange has made the most of his opportunity, averaging 8.7 saves per game and making numerous, momentum-shifting plays in the wins over Santa Clara and Stanford.
2023 ACWPC All-America Honorable Mention Albert Ponferrada has scored 12 goals this season, but has made his impact felt with 31 assists that rank third in the MPSF. Center George Avakian has 19 goals – tying him with Bende Pardi for fourth most on the team – to go with an MPSF-best 51 earned exclusions.
THE STAFF
Kirk Everist was named ACWPC National Coach of the Year for the fifth time last season after winning his sixth NCAA championship as the Bears' head coach and eighth overall with the program. The USA Water Polo Hall of Famer is in his 23rd season at the helm of the program with an all-time coaching record of 469-141 (.769).
Joining Everist on the staff are third-year assistant coach Jakov Belamaric and former Golden Bear player Iosefa Tuiasau. Tuiasau – who played for Everist from 2009-11 – rejoins the Bears following two successful seasons as an assistant coach at Pacific and a highly successful coaching run in his native New Zealand at the high school, club and international levels. That included serving as an assistant coach for the New Zealand Women's National Team and a stint at Rangitoto College that resulted in numerous trophies.
REPEAT SUCCESS
No men's water polo program has won more national championships than Cal, which claimed its 17th on Dec. 3, 2023, after defeating UCLA 13-11 in the NCAA final. The historic win gave the Bears the distinction of owning three of the four three-peats in NCAA men's water polo history.
STAY POSTED
For further coverage of Cal men's water polo, follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalWaterPolo) and Instagram (@calmwaterpolo).
