BEAR BITES
California wraps the regular season this weekend with a visit to Stanford, with the No. 4 Golden Bears (13-4, 3-2 MPSF) taking on the No. 2 Cardinal (10-1, 4-1) at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Avery Aquatic Center.

FOLLOW ALONG
Saturday's Cal-Stanford game will stream on overnght.com, and live stats will be available at scores.6-8sports.com.

LAST ACTION
Cal went toe-to-toe with top-ranked USC in MPSF action before the host Trojans got out ahead in the second period and held off the Golden Bears for a 14-10 decision.
Cal was right in stride with USC for the first 12 minutes, consistently finding a response to each Trojan goal in an offensive onslaught for that opening stretch. After a Despoina Drakotou takeaway, Talia Fonseca found Maria Bogachenko on the counterattack, and she hit Rosalie Hassett for a strike that knotted the game up for the sixth time. With 12 goals scored in 12 minutes, the score was even at 6-6. That's when the Trojans shifted gears, knocking in three straight scores to go up 9-6 before Hassett hit her second of the day to make it a 9-7 margin just before halftime.
USC crept ahead 11-7 with a couple early goals before Julia Bonaguidi tallied her second for Cal to make it 11-8 with 3:11 on the clock. USC hit from distance next, and then Hassett set up Eszter Varró for a blast at the post for the Bears to get Cal back within three. USC finished off a 6-on-5 soon after, though, and it was a 13-9 scoreline entering the fourth. There, Cal got another Varró blast off a feed from Hassett in the final minute, but the Bears could move no closer in the remaining time and took a 14-10 loss to No. 1 USC.
NOTABLE:
- Eszter Varró scored a season-high four goals.
- With two goals, Julia Bonaguidi has scored multiple goals in Cal's last six games.
- With one goal, Abbi Magee has now scored in 15 of Cal's 16 games this season ­— a team high.
- With 10 saves, Talia Fonseca recorded her second double-digit saves outing of the season and the eighth of her career.

BY THE NUMBERS
Cal's leading scorer is Julia Bonaguidi with 39 goals, followed closely by Despoina Drakotou with 37. Two more Bears have crossed the 30-goal mark in Abbi Magee (35) and Feline Voordouw (33). On the defensive end, Cal is allowing 10.9 goals per game. Talia Fonseca has been the goalie of record in all 17 games so far this season and is averaging 7.5 saves per game. Lexi Nelson has capped up in six games and averages 8.7 saves per game in her six periods of work. Cal is outscoring opponents 263-186 this season.
 
CENTURY CLUB
Senior Abbi Magee needed three goals to get to the 100th of her career, and she did it one better with a four-goal outburst in Cal's 22-10 win over San José State on March 7. Now with 107 career goals, Magee is primed to continue her climb up the Bears scoring ladder this season. She's currently second on the team in scoring with 35 goals tallied to date.
Two more Bears are closing the gap on the 100-goal club, with Julia Bonaguidi at 89 career goals and Feline Voordouw with 84.

CUTINO AWARD WATCH LIST
Cal stands tall with three Golden Bears highlighting the 2026 Cutino Award Watch List. Freshman Despoina Drakotou and juniors Julia Bonaguidi and Feline Voordouw have been recognized as potential candidates for collegiate water polo's top honor, the Peter J. Cutino Award. It is the first selection to the Watch List for all three Bears.
In her first season as a Bear, Drakotou is Cal's second leading scorer with 37 goals and second in assists with 24 while leading the Bears in steals with 26 to date. Drakotou has claimed six MPSF Newcomer of the Week awards, doubling up on Cal's previous record for single-season weekly awards from the conference. A native of Athens, Greece, she recently earned a bronze medal with Greece at the 2025 U20 World Aquatics Championships.
Bonaguidi earned her first career MPSF Player of the Week selection earlier this season. Along with her team-high 39 goals, she's nabbed 21 steals and delivered 17 assists this year so far. A member of the U.S. National Team, Bonaguidi won gold with the U.S. Junior Team at the 2025 U20 World Aquatics Championships last summer. In her three seasons so far at Cal, she's totalled 89 career goals.
Voordouw leads Cal in drawn exclusions and field blocks so far this season with 33 and 13, respectively. She also has punched up 33 goals to go with 10 steals and eight assists for the Bears. She holds 84 goals in her three seasons of work at Cal to date. A native of Neede, Netherlands, she is a member of the Dutch National Team.
Cal has had two previous Cutino Award finalists on the women's side, with Emily Csikos named one of three finalists in 2011 and Isabel Williams becoming the first female Bear to win the Peter J. Cutino Award with her honor won in 2024.

JULIA JOINS THE LIST
Junior Julia Bonaguidi earned her first career MPSF weekly award with her March 3 pick as the MPSF Player of the Week. She's the first Golden Bear to secure that honor since 2024.
Bonaguidi tied her career high with four goals — including three in the fourth period — to help Cal beat host No. 5 Arizona State 11-10. Bonaguidi's first goal tied up the game at 3-3 in the second period, and her next two gave Cal one-goal leads in the fourth. She'd score on a 5-meter penalty shot to tie the game at 9-9, and she'd serve up the game-winning assist on Abbi Magee's goal with one second left. Bonaguidi had two assists and a steal in the win.
Bonaguidi's first MPSF Player of the Week award makes her the first Bear honoree since 2024, when Cal's Isabel Williams was a three-time winner and Elena Flynn won it once.
 
DESPI SECURES SIX
After opening her Cal career with three MPSF Newcomer of the Week awards in her first three weeks of action, freshman Despoina Drakotou continues to add to her Cal-record win count, now with six MPSF Newcomer of the Week honors earned. The MPSF record of seven Newcomer of the Week awards is shared by three players.
Prior to Drakotou, two other Cal players had earned three weekly honors in a season. In 2024, Isabel Williams was a three-time MPSF Player of the Week, and Kitty Lynn Joustra earned three MPSF Newcomer of the Week honors in 2018.
Drakotou is Cal's No. 2 scorer with 37 goals, and she has scored in 15 of the Bear's 17 games this season with a team-best 12 multiple-goal outings. Earlier this year, Drakotou registered a seven-goal game, marking the second-most goals scored by a Bear in program history and the most since 2019.

EURO ACTION
Two current Bears and three Cal alumnae were in action at the European Championships from Jan. 25-Feb. 5 in Portugal. Ezster Varró (Hungary) and Maria Bogachenko (Israel) took time away from Cal to compete for their respective nations.
Bogachenko scored a team-high 20 goals in Portugal. She served up seven goals for Israel to help finish seventh place overall. Varró helped her Hungarians reach the championship game and earn silver, with Varró scoring twice in that final and finishing the event with nine total goals scored.
Cal alum and Olympian Kitty Lynn Joustra was one of the event's top scorers, leading Netherlands to gold as she tallied a total of 22 goals. Two more former Bears were representing Great Britain, which finished in 10th place thanks to work from Cal alums Cassidy Ball and Cecily Turner. Turner led her team with 16 goals scored.

BACK FOR MORE
Cal returns three of its top five scorers from 2025. Gone are Ruby Swadling (55 goals) and Elena Flynn (48), but the Bears have Maria Bogachenko, Julia Bonaguidi and Abbi Magee all back after boasting a combined 107 goals last year. In their first seasons as Bears, Ezster Varró and Rosalie Hassett tallied 21 and 17 goals, respectively. In goal, Talia Fonseca capped up in all 25 games and averaged 7.4 saves per game.

NEW CREW
Cal welcomes many new faces to the pool for this 2026 season. Six true freshmen are in the mix – Marina Brown (Santa Barbara), Despoina Drakotou (Athens, Greece), Reece Helsel (Clovis), Lexi Nelson (Menlo Park), Harper Price (Newport Beach) and Gabby Reichley (San Anselmo).

GOALIE CORPS
Cal has two talented goalies tabbed for duty this season, led by 2025 All-MPSF Honorable Mention recipient Talia Fonseca. True freshman Lexi Nelson rounds out the Bears' defensive backbone.

WORLD STAGE
Six Bears stepped up for international duty during the summer at the World Aquatics U20 Championships in Brazil. Team USA – featuring Julia Bonaguidi and Rosalie Hassett with head coach Coralie Simmons on the coaching staff – captured gold medals. Incoming freshman Despoina Drakotou also took home some hardware in helping Greece claim bronze. Also representing their countries were sophomore Holly Dunn with New Zealand and Hungarian sophomore Eszter Varró.

HONORING BRIGITTE
This year, Cal hosted the ninth edition of its early-season tournament known as the Cal Cup. Now named the Brigitte Donner Daws Memorial Invitational, the competition honors the memory of Brigitte Donner Daws, who played water polo at Cal from 1998-2002 and passed away tragically in 2020.
The inaugural Brigitte Donner Daws Memorial Invitational was held Jan. 24-25 at Spieker Aquatics Complex and featured both official and exhibition competition between eight teams. Brigitte's family members participated in a ceremonial ball drop ahead of the Cal-Fresno State game.
 
LAST SEASON
Cal is coming off a season where the Bears reached the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year. The 2025 squad went 19-6 overall and placed third at the MPSF Tournament. In their final seasons at Cal, three Bears earned All-America honors – Ruby Swadling (first team), Elena Flynn (second team) and Rozanne Voorvelt (honorable mention). All three also earned All-MPSF accolades along with redshirt sophomore goalie Talia Fonseca (honorable mention) and All-Newcomer honorees Maria Bogachenko and Rosalie Hassett. Swadling was the 2025 team's top scorer with 55 goals.

STAY POSTED
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