No. 5 Cal Travels to SoCal Open at Pepperdine

Oct. 7, 2008

BERKELEY, CALIF. -

Sat.,-Sun. Oct. 11-12 at SoCal Open, Raleigh Runnels Pool Malibu Calif. All Day

Bear Bites

The No. 5 Cal men's water polo team (7-3, 0-1), defending 2006 and 2007 national champions, will battle the nation's top teams this weekend as it competes at the SoCal Open in Malibu. Cal will open the competition against No. 13 St. Francis (7-3) on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 12 p.m. at Pepperdine's Raleigh Runnels Pool. The Bears earlier defeated St. Francis, 10-6, Sept. 7 at the Navy Open. If Cal defeats St. Francis, it will likely face No. 4 ranked and host Pepperdine, a team that upended the Bears, 7-5, in an MPSF match Sept. 27 in Malibu. Cal is looking for a strong performance after placing fourth in the other major early season tournament, the Sept. 20-21 NorCal Open in Stockton, where the Bears lost a 11-10 sudden death overtime match to No. 3 Stanford and had a 6-4 loss to No. 2 UCLA. Cal is fresh off of defeating No. 11 Pacific, 16-4, in its home opener Oct. 4 at Spieker Aquatics Complex to snap a three-match losing streak. During the Pacific match, the Bears were led by junior All-American Spencer Warden and freshman standout Luka Saponjic with three goals apiece. Five other players - senior captain Trent Calder, freshman Ivan Rackov, sophomore Zach White, junior Mike Sample and sophomore Daniel Orloff - had two goals each. Rackov and freshman Charlie Steffens added three steals apiece, while Warden, senior captain Frank Reynolds and sophomore Travis Read had two assists apiece. The Bears are currently fourth in the MPSF in goals per game (11.30) and goals per game against (5.60).

About the SoCal Open

The SoCal Open features 14 of 16 teams ranked in last week's Collegiate Top 20 poll. Pool A consists of No. 1 USC, No. 8 UC Irvine, No. 9 UC Santa Barbara and Pomona-Pitzer. Pool B includes No. 2 UCLA, No. 7 Long Beach State, No. 10 UC San Diego and Bucknell. Pool C consists of No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 Loyola Marymount, No. 11 Pacific and No. 16 Princeton. Pool D features No. 4 Pepperdine, No. 5 Cal, No. 13 St. Francis and No. 15 Redlands. On Oct. 11, Cal plays St. Francis at 12 p.m., and if the Bears win, they would play the winner of Redlands-Pepperdine at 5:20 p.m. If Cal wins both of its matches Saturday, it would play at 12 p.m. versus the winner of Pool A (USC, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Pomona-Pitzer). If Cal wins that match, it will play in the tournament championship at 5:20 p.m. Last season at the SoCal Open in Irvine, the Bears fell to Stanford, 10-9 in sudden death overtime in the semifinals, but rebounded to defeat UCLA, 8-7, in the tournament third place match.

Cal Notes

Freshmen Saponjic and Rackov are both from Belgrade, Serbia and arrived to Cal prior to the NorCal Open after competing in the European Youth Championships in Malta. Rackov went on to lead Cal with eight goals and added five assists and five steals during the NorCal Open. He now has 10 goals in six matches, while Saponjic has six goals in four matches. Cal's leading scorers on the year are Reynolds and Warden with 14 goals apiece. Warden has also notched a team-high 21 steals. Sample leads Cal with 13 assists, White tops the squad with 10 ejections earned and Calder has a team-best seven field blocks. The Bears have outscored their opponents 113-56 and have 129 steals, 101 assists, 65 ejections earned and 25 field blocks. Reynolds was this season's (Sept. 8) first MPSF Co-Player of the Week after leading the team with 11 goals, and adding four assists, three steals, three ejections earned and two field blocks at the Sept. 6-7 Navy Open. This year's Cal squad is attempting to be the first men's water polo squad to win three straight NCAA titles since the 1990-92 teams accomplished the feat.

Head Coach Kirk Everist

Everist (147-43, .774, 7th year) led the Bears to a 28-4 mark and the program's 13th NCAA crown in 2007. In 2006, he also led Cal to the NCAA title, and in 2002 was MPSF Coach of the Year after the Bears made their first NCAA appearance since 1995. A 1990 Cal graduate, Everist led the Bears to NCAA titles in 1987 and 1988, earning All-America honors from1986-88 and NCAA Player of the Year in 1988. He was on the USA National Team for nine years (1988-96), comping in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. Everist's staff includes associate head coach Boyd Lachance (seventh year), and Sean Nolan (fourth year), a 2000 USA Olympian who was a three-time All-American at Cal, helping lead the Bears to the 1991 and 1992 NCAA titles.