No. 4 Cal Falls In Third-Place Game

Sunday, September 20

12:30 PM PT

California

8-2

USC

10-1

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
California	4	3	4	1	12
Southern California	3	3	2	5	13

Photo by: Daniel Moebus-Bowles/Cal Athletics

9/20/2026 3:57 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

Bears Bested Late By No. 2 USC 13-12

By: Cal Athletics

STANFORD – The No. 4 California men's water polo dropped its third-place game at the Overnght MPSF Invitational on Sunday falling late to No. 2 USC 13-12 at Avery Aquatic Center.

Sophomore Kai Inoue led all scorers with five points netting four goals on five shots with an assist and got the Bears off to a hot start collecting a score and a dish in the first quarter. Four different Golden Bears found the net to give Cal (8-2) an early 4-3 lead.

The second quarter was dead even with both the Trojans (10-1) and the Bears scoring a trio of goals mixed with strong defense to give Cal the 7-6 edge at the half. Inoue scored on back-to-back tries notching both a natural goal and a power-play goal.

The third quarter was all about sophomore Beso Akhvlediani who recorded a hat trick in just over a two-minute span to put the Bears up three goals and the final score of the day for Inoue gave Cal an 11-8 lead heading into the fourth period.

The Bears' offense stalled down the stretch which led USC to a game-winning 4-0 run in the final six minutes of the game.

Freshman Ilias Angelopoulos was a handful in the middle drawing four exclusions to go with a field block on the defensive end. Sophomore goalkeeper Aran Pina collected nine saves and two steals.

Cal now returns home this Thursday to face Saint Mary's at 5 p.m. PT on Overnght followed by an exhibition with West Valley College.

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