Cal Water Polo Completes Key Home Sweep of UCLA and USC

The Bears improve their chances of earning a berth in the NCAA tournament

Cal goalkeeper Aran Pina celebrates a big moment against USC | Photo by Evi Segovia, Cal Athletics

The No. 3 Cal men’s water polo team will see its national ranking climb after sweeping top-ranked UCLA and No. 4 USC this weekend, results that will enhance the Bears’ chances of landing a berth in the NCAA Championships next month.

Cal improved to 14-4, 3-2 in the powerhouse Mountain Pacific Sports Federation by taking down UCLA 14-12 on Saturday and handling USC 18-11 on Sunday. Both matches took place at Cal’s Spieker Aquatics Complex.

The Bears still have two more regular-season games against top-10 opponents, including a road duel vs. No. 2 Stanford in the Big Splash on Nov. 13. The MPSF championships will be contested Nov. 20-22 in Los Angeles, with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, Dec. 3-6 at La Jolla.

At issue is that only three MPSF teams are invited to the eight-school NCAAs, meaning one of the nation’s top-four squads will be left home. That’s been Cal the past two years, but they now own a five-game win streak and at least one victory against each of the other three.

Across the Bay, No. 2-ranked Stanford also swept the L.A. schools, beating USC 17-13 and UCLA 11-8.

The MPSF regular-season standings with one league match remaining for each school: 

Stanford 17-2, 4-1
Cal 14-4, 3-2
UCLA 17-3, 2-3; 4
USC 14-5, 1-4

Beso Akhvlediani, a sophomore attacker from Tlibisi, Georgia, led the Bears in both matches. He had three goals and four assists against UCLA, then four goals and three assists vs. the Trojans. 

A second-team All-American as a freshman last season, Akhvlediani boosted his team-leading season totals to 52 goals and 39 assists.

The win over UCLA — the Bears’ second victory this season over a top-ranked opponent — also featured junior Maddox Arlett, who scored his first hat trick and also had two assists. Freshman Ilias Angelopoulos contributed two goals and drew four exclusions.

Sophomore goalkeeper Aran Pina had 11 saves and the Bears’ defense killed 11 of the Bruins’ 11 power-play chances.

On Sunday against USC, junior Patrick Kolak scored a career-high four goals, sophomore Kai Inoue had a goal and four assists,  Angelopoulos scored his fourth hat trick of the season and sophomore Tomas Perrone contributed two goals and two assists. 

The Bears converted 18 of 29 shot attempts for goals and Pina logged nine saves in net.

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