Courtesy: Cal Athletics
BERKELEY – After coming back from four goals down in last year’s NCAA Championship to pull off one of the most legendary comebacks in the history of the sport, the California men’s water polo team brings back many key players for its challenging 2023 schedule looking to claim a third straight national title.
Coming off a remarkable year in which they finished with a record of 23-2 – posting their highest win percentage in 30 years – the Golden Bears are set to take on their usual slate of top opposition. It includes eight schools that ended the 2022 season ranked in the top 15 nationally (Collegiate Water Polo Association) and, with the exception of Princeton, every team that competed in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Cal begins the season on Sept. 2 with the two-day Triton Invitational at UC San Diego. A week later, the Bears travel to play at USC (Sept. 9) where they will face the Trojans for the first time since last December at Spieker Aquatics Complex, when they scored five unanswered goals in the last six minutes to steal a second consecutive 13-12 national championship win.
After playing in the MPSF Invitational from Sept. 22-24, Cal will have two weeks off before a difficult three-game stretch against teams that ended last year with top-four national rankings. The Bears’ action-packed home-opening weekend will see them host UCLA (Oct. 7) and USC (Oct. 8) on back-to-back days.
Both of Cal’s scheduled meetings with Stanford will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks, the first of which will be played at Stanford on Oct. 14. The Bears close out the regular season at home against the Cardinal on Nov. 11 before they host the MPSF Championships from Nov. 17-19.
For the second straight year, Cal brings back most of the key players from its NCAA-best 16th title run, led by two-time ACWPC Player of the Year and Cutino Award Winner Nikolaos Papanikolaou. ACWPC All-America First Team selections goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg and attacker Max Casabella will also be back, as will Third Team honoree Roberto Valera, who scored the winning goal in last year’s title game.
With its experienced veteran roster and a proven winning culture already in place, the Bears have their sights set on becoming the first NCAA program ever to three-peat for a third time.
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