Cal Water Polo: Center Nikolaos Papanikolaou, Coach Kirk Everist Sweep National Awards
To the champions go the spoils. As a result, it was no surprise this week when the Cal men’s water polo team, which won its 15th NCAA championship earlier this month, swept the major individual national awards.
Center Nikolaos Papanikolaou was named ACWPC Player of the Year and Kirk Everist earned his third Coach of the Year award.
Photo by Catharyn Hayne, KLC fotos
The Bears claimed their first national championship since 2017 with a 13-12 win over top-seeded USC.
Papanikolaou, who blocked a shot with seconds left to secure the win over USC in the title game, already had won Player of the Year honors in the powerhouse Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for the second straight season.
The junior from Athens, Greece, led the conference with 68 goals, 35 steals and 112 exclusions earned and became the first Cal player to capture national honors since Luca Cupido in 2017.
Everist, the Bears’ coach for the past 20 seasons, directed the program to a 24-2 record this season, capturing the MPSF regular-season title along the way. It’s the ninth time a Cal coach has been honored as the nation’s best, and follows Everist collecting the award in 2006 and 2016.
Papanikolaou also was one of six Cal players named to the ACWPC All-America team. He is a three-time All-American, having now been chosen the first team two straight seasons.
Also named to the All-America teams from Cal were attacker Jack Deely, a first-team selection, goalie Adam Weinberg, Roberto Valera and Max Casabella all to the second team, and third-team selection Nikos Delagrammatikas, a second-team selection a year ago, who scored the game-winning goal in the national championship.
All of Cal’s players chosen to the All-America teams, except Delagrammatikas, a graduate student, will return to the Bears' 2022 team.
Cover photo of Nikolaos Papanikolaou by Catharyn Hayne, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo