No. 4 Bears Bested By No. 1 Bruins 13-11

Sunday, October 4

Los Angeles, CA

1:00 PM PT

California

9-4

UCLA

15-1

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
California	2	2	3	4	11
UCLA	3	0	6	4	13

Photo by: Dylan Fujita

10/4/2026 3:16 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

Late Penalties Plague Young Cal Team

By: Cal Athletics

LOS ANGELES – The No. 4 California men's water polo team came up empty on its weekend trip to Los Angeles after falling to No. 1 UCLA 13-11 Sunday at Spieker Aquatics Center.

For the fourth time this season the Golden Bears (9-4, 0-2 MPSF) hung tough with a top-three team but were unable to close down the stretch. Had it not been for an empty-net goal scored by the Bruins (14-1, 1-1 MPSF) with five seconds left to play, the result would have been Cal's fourth one-goal loss this season.

Once again Cal was led by its strong underclassmen group with freshman Ilias Angelopoulos going 4-for-6 with a steal and three drawn exclusions. Two sophomores joined him with multigoal efforts with Tomas Perrone recording a hat trick with an assist and a drawn exclusions and Beso Akhvlediani collecting two goals, three assists and two drawn exclusions.

Sophomore goalkeeper Aran Pina earned nine saves and two steals giving him 24 saves in the last 24 hours.

After falling behind 3-2 in the first quarter the Bears blanked the Bruins to win the second period 2-0 and take a 4-3 lead into the half. Despite a strong first half by Cal, the reigning national champions would not be denied, drawing eight exclusions and two penalties to outscore the Bears 6-3 and take a 9-7 lead.

Cal opened the fourth quarter with a 3-0 run fueled by two goals from Angelopoulos and one from Akhvlediani to give the young team a 10-9 lead with just 3:46 left to go. Back-to-back penalties plagued the Bears late and cost them their lead as UCLA ended the game on a 4-1 run.

Cal will now go on a bye week before returning to Spieker Aquatics Complex on Saturday, October 17 when Stanford comes across the bay for Big Splash.

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For further coverage of Cal men's water polo, follow the Bears on X (@CalWaterPolo) and Instagram (@calmwaterpolo).