Cal Men's Water Polo three-peats as NCAA Champion

California Golden Bears defeats UCLA Bruins 13-11 to win the 2023 NCAA Championship

Mission accomplished!!!

California Golden Bears (24-5) completed the third three-peat in program history on Sunday after defeating UCLA Bruins (26-3) by a 13-11 final score from Uytengsu Aquatics Center at USC. The most successful program in NCAA Men’s Water Polo history now owns 17 national championships. Cal also accomplished three-peats on 1973-75 and 1990-92.

Overall, Cal Athletics now claims 104 team national championships. For those who want to ignore Cal history and the non-NCAA championships earned by Rugby, Men’s Crew, those five Football national titles, etc., Cal now owns 43 NCAA titles to break the tie with Florida for sole possession of 10th place overall in Division 1.

A third consecutive national championship was the only fitting end to cap the brilliant collegiate water polo careers of center Nikolaos Papanikolaou, goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg, and the rest of the senior class that forged a special bond due to that atypical COVID year. Cal Bears played the entire season with the weight of expectation. But it took this final match of the season, for the Bears to finally solve the problem that was the UCLA Bruins.

Nikolaos “Papa” Papanikolaou was named the NCAA Championship MVP for the third straight year. The two-time Cutino Award winner might have just won his third Cutino Award (to be announced next spring) this weekend by drawing exclusions (power play opportunities) at a ridiculous rate. “Papa” scored only two goals in these last two matches, but he created 20+ power plays for the Golden Bears. “Papa” was an unstoppable force at that 2-meter line. Both UCLA on Sunday and USC on Saturday could only foul him repeatedly despite already constantly double- or triple-teaming him.

UCLA may have been 3-0 against Cal this season before the championship final, but Cal players relished the opportunity to deal their Southern Branch rival a loss when it mattered the most. Back to full strength for the first time this weekend, with junior Roberto Valera finally eligible to play after having to sit out two matches due to committing too many fouls, Cal soon took control of the match midway through the first quarter.

While the Bruins scored the match's first goal, Papa earned the Bears a power play right away. Garrett Dunn, one of nine seniors on the team, scored the equalizer in the power play. Roberto Valera, eager to make a difference now that he is eligible to play, scored the next two goals for the Bears, both on power plays (one of which is credited again to Papa). The two teams traded made penalties to close the first quarter with Cal ahead 4-2.

Papa scored with emphasis to break his scoring drought early in the 2nd quarter. With the Cal man advantage (another power play earned by Papa), Papanikolaou essentially dunked the ball into the net on a one-timer. Max Casabella made it 6-2 Cal on another power-play goal (yep, earned by Papa).

Credit to UCLA for not giving up though. The Bruins outscored the Bears 4-3 for the rest of the eventful second quarter. Cal Bears still hold a comfortable 9-6 halftime lead after three goals apiece from the Spanish duo of Max Casabella and Roberto Valera. Papanikolaou also had a first-half brace.

The third quarter saw Cal first gain complete control by scoring the first three goals of the second half. Nik Mirkovic, Max Casabella, and a Roberto Valera penalty made it 12-6 with 4:54 left in the 3rd. UCLA will make a push, however. The Bruins converted three power plays to pull within 12-9. Cal keeper Adrian Weinberg had to make a key save just before the end of the quarter to maintain the three-goal cushion.

Arguably, the Cal Bears did not play the smartest water polo since they got the six-goal lead. While it was too early to just run out the clock on every possession without trying to score, the Bears instead took too many early shots in the play clock while seeking the proverbial “dagger”. Cal head coach Kirk Everist excused this overzealousness from his players since many of them are natural scorers who have had a history of making those shots. Nonetheless, Cal allowed UCLA back into this match going into the 4th quarter.

Fortunately for the Bears, the 2023 UCLA was no 2022 Cal that memorably managed to erase a four-goal deficit with six minutes to go. UCLA was only able to outscore Cal by a slim 2-1 margin in the final quarter. Weinberg made four key saves in the fourth quarter for a total of 12 in the match. It may not have happened as straightforwardly as many would have anticipated before the season. Still, Cal Men’s Water Polo won their third consecutive NCAA title, and the celebration in the pool commenced!

This was head coach Kirk Everist’s 6th natty as the Cal head coach to add to the two that he won as a Cal player.

In addition to the brilliant efforts from senior superstars Papanikolaou and Weinberg, Cal got fantastic results from their “Spanish Armada”. Juniors Max Casabella (5 goals) and Roberto Valera (4 goals, 2 assists), as well as sophomore Albert Ponferrada (4 assists, 3 steals, and a special postgame shoutout from Weinberg for slowing down UCLA’s top scorer Rafael Real Vergara) all played very well. If we are fortunate enough to be talking about a possible 4th-consecutive NCAA title this time next year, it will likely be due to the performance of this Spanish trio.

Back to the present, Golden Bears will likely not have the magnitude of their achievement sink in for a few days. Everything worked out fine in the end, even though the long season was a bit of a rollercoaster ride.

Papanikolaou missing about a third of the season did show how this Cal squad is still quite good without him. Juniors George Avakian, Jordi Gascon, and the versatile Jake Howerton have all filled in as the center at times. Cal has talent and depth in all facets of the roster, and it was a total team effort across the entire active roster to beat these LA schools in the NCAA semifinal and final.

As the well-deserved celebration (that might have started a bit prematurely when the Bears went up by six goals) finally winds down, I thought I sensed more relief and pride than joy from the two Cal seniors who still had to deal with the media (AKA me) before being let go to celebrate with the family and friends. At that same table yesterday, USC head coach Marko Pintaric talked about how the close loss (like their postseason losses to Cal in recent years) hurt more than the joy of winning some of the championships. Winning the 2023 championship in a less dramatic way than the previous two years probably evoked a slightly calmer reaction. Nonetheless, the 2023 Cal squad, especially the seniors, got to cement their legacy in both the program and college water polo history forever with this victory.

"I think both of us can agree that this one was very special because it was a culmination of everything we worked for," Weinberg said. "It's very special and it hasn't really registered yet, but it probably will in about a week."

With that said, Papanikolaou understandably ranked the 2022 title when he unconsciously carried the team late as his favorite of the trio. Weinberg gave the edge to the 2021 title, the one that started the run.

Cal head coach Kirk Everist got nothing but praises for his two long-time leaders.

On Papanikolaou: "I played with a guy who lives in Greece now. His name's Chris Humbert, He, rightfully so, thinks that he's the best player who ever played at Cal," Everist said. "I keep telling him he's the second-best player, but he says 'I have 3 championships and [Papanikolaou] only has two.' So, now I can text him and say, 'Alright, take a step down.'"

On Weinberg: “He’s top two. He and Lazar [Andric] are the two goalies [during Everist’s coaching era] that can just change the game. You see how he played yesterday [against USC] when he was just on his game” Everist said. “There was a lot going on during the season, with his dual loyalty to [USA Senior Team], positioning himself for a role on the Olympic team, qualifying for the Olympics, and playing for us. This weekend, [Weinberg] was able to just say ‘These are my boys and this is it.’” Adrian Weinberg will next star as the starting Team USA goalkeeper at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Cal Men's Water Polo will always attract some of the best players in the world to join. However, let us take one more moment to appreciate the special talent that is Nikolaos Papanikolaou and Adrian Weinberg. Papa ends up with 253 career goals, good for 2nd overall in program history. Weinberg's 984 career saves are good for 3rd all-time in MPSF history. Those individual accomplishments pale compared to the only number that mattered.

THREE - the number of consecutive NCAA championships won by this Cal team.

ROLL ON YOU BEARS!