Cal Men's Water Polo: Bears Seeded No. 2 into NCAA Championship tournament
The Cal men’s water polo team will pursue its 15th national championship beginning on Saturday, March 20, as the No. 2 seed into the NCAA championships.
The Bears (8-4) lost 9-8 to Stanford in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship game on Sunday, preventing them from securing the No. 1 seed to the NCAAs.
But Cal, which entered the MPSF tournament as the top seed, nonetheless advances to the NCAA event for the first time since 2017. The Bears have a bye into the semifinals, where they will face the winner of the March 18 match between USC (6-8) and Bucknell (4-1).
Stanford (6-3) is seeded No. 1 in the NCAA tournament and also gets a bye into the March 20 semifinals against the winner of the match between UCLA (6-7) and Cal Baptist (7-4).
Stanford will play its semifinal at 1 p.m. at USC’s Uytengsu Aquatic Center and Cal will go at 4 p.m. The March 21 championship game will begin at 2 p.m. The semifinals and championship games will be streamed live on NCAA.com.
Cal has won 14 NCAA titles, most recently in 2016 when they defeated USC in overtime in the championship match. Stanford has claimed 11 NCAA titles in the sport.
The Bears and Cardinal met in the MPSF title game for the third straight season, and Stanford led 9-5 before Cal rallied to get within one goal.
Cal’s Marko Valecic led all scorers with four points one goal and three assists. Eight different Cal players scored goals in the title match.
The Bears beat USC in the MPSF semifinals while Stanford toppled UCLA, both by scores of 11-8.
Cal owns a 4-1 season series edge on USC and beat UCLA three times in four tries. Stanford has a 2-1 advantage over the Bears.
Cal is led by center Nikolaos Papanikoaou, a sophomore from Athens, Greece, who was named MPSF Player of the Year last week. Papanikoaou, who was named to the all-conference team for the second consecutive season, became the fifth Cal player to earn Player of the Year honors, joining Luca Cupido (2017), Nick Kittredge (1995), Troy Barnhart (1993) and Chris Oeding (1992).
Also named to the All-MPSF first team from Cal were Nikos Delagrammatikas, a senior 2-meter player from Athens, Greece, and Jack Deely, a junior utility from Danville, CA. Delagrammatikas is a three-time selection.
Named to the second team: Garrett Dunn, sophomore attacker from Lafayette, CA; Alika Naone, freshman attacker from Honolulu; Adrian Wenberg, sophomore goalkeeper fro Oak Park, CA. Warren Loth, a sophomore 2-meter from Corona Del Mar, CA, was named honorable mention.
Cal’s Kirk Everist was named MPSF Coach of the Year for the second time.
Cover photo of Cal's Joe Molina by Catharyn Hayne, KLC fotos
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo