Courtesy: Cal Athletics
SAN DIEGO – A monster day from ACWPC All-Americans Roberto Valera and Max Casabella nearly got the No. 2 California men’s water polo team out to a 4-0 start to the year, but following a 19-9 Sunday-morning win over Cal State Fullerton, the Golden Bears fell to No. 13 Pepperdine 21-20 in sudden victory overtime to close out the Triton Invitational.
Both of the Bears’ (3-1) top goal scorers set career highs against the Waves (3-0). Valera finished with eight goals, scoring in every quarter and both overtime periods. Casabella finished with seven goals.
Cal pulled away early in its win over the Titans (1-2), jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead that wouldn’t drop below three goals the rest of the way. Six Bears finished with multi-goal efforts, led by Jake Howerton and Piero Arienti’s hat tricks. Jordi Gascon, Casabella, Carter Loth and Will Kelly all scored twice.
Against Pepperdine, Valera got Cal out to a 4-1 lead with a pair of first-quarter goals. The Waves answered with a 4-1 run of their own to end the opening period.
Neither team led by more than two goals until the fourth quarter, when Pepperdine went up 16-13 with 6:19 to go in regulation. Valera answered with a 6-on-5 goal on the next play and Casabella put away two consecutive penalties to tie it 16-16 at the 4:11 mark.
Back-to-back goals by Marci Szatmary gave the Bears an 18-17 edge with under two minutes remaining, but a Pepperdine power play goal sent the game to overtime. Despite two go-ahead goals down the stretch by Valera, the Waves came away with the win.
Valera and Casabella – both of whom entered the game with a career high of six goals – became the first Bears to score seven times since Nikolaos Papanikolaou in the 2022 NCAA Championship Game. Valera’s eight-goal outing gave him a team-leading 16 through four games, while Casabella brought his total to 14.
The Bears will head out to UC Davis next weekend for four more games at the Aggie Roundup, starting with a pair of top-10 matchups on Saturday against No. 8 UCD at 8 a.m. PT and No. 9 San Jose State at 12:30 p.m.
No. 2 California 19, Cal State Fullerton 9
Cal 5 4 4 6 – 19
CSF 1 4 1 2 – 8
Cal Goals: Jake Howerton 3, Piero Arienti 3, Jordi Gascon 2, Max Casabella 2, Carter Loth 2, Will Kelly 2, Roberto Valera, Maddox Arlett, Patrik Kolak, Brennan Fuchslin, Bende Pardi
CSF Goals: Aaron Ayala 3, Julian Nichols, Zack Ewing, Nico D’Angelo, Togan Ozbek, Bradley Pearce, Reese Starkey
No. 13 Pepperdine 21, No. 2 California 20 (SV)
Cal 5 4 4 5 1 1 0 – 20
Pepp 5 3 6 4 0 2 1 – 21
Cal Goals: Roberto Valera 8, Max Casabella 7, Marci Szatmary 2, Jordi Gascon, Carter Loth, George Avakian
Pepp Goals: Jon Carcarey 6, Christian Hosea 4, Erik Ionescu 4, Sandor Gal 2, Chase Wilson 2, Dane Howell 2, Adam Csapo
