BRIDGEPORT, Pa. - When the 2017 season gets underway Saturday in San Diego, the Cal men's water polo team will dive in as the No. 1 team in the nation as the defending NCAA champion earned the top ranking in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) preseason poll released Wednesday.

Cal, which earned national title No. 14 in December by beating USC 11-8 in the NCAA championship match, earned 99 points from a national panel of coaches. The Trojans slotted in at No. 2 in the preseason poll with 96 points while fellow Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) competitor Stanford ranked third with 88. UCLA landed fourth and Pacific rounded out the top five.

With four returning All-Americans and a veteran squad that includes six seniors, head coach Kirk Everist's squad has its sights set on duplicating the success of a year ago. A busy summer saw several Golden Bears make a major impact in international competition with four players - Nicholas Carniglia, Luca Cupido, Johnny Hooper and Pedro Stellet - taking part in the FINA World Championships. The FINA Junior World Championships featured five Bears, two of whom (Odysseas Masmanidis and Nikos Delagrammatikas) won gold as part of Team Greece. And, three Bears along with assistant coach Jeff Tyrrell made the trip to Taiwan to take part in the World University Games. 

Cal opens the 2017 season on Saturday with the first day of competition at the Triton Invitational hosted by UC San Diego. The Bears will take on Loyola Marymount at 8:20 a.m. to begin play and opponents/times will be determined by results after the first match. For updates throughout the weekend, follow @CalWaterPolo on Twitter and visit CalBears.com for daily recaps.