UCLA Men’s Water Polo To Play Southern Cal for MPSF Championship

The UCLA Football team may have gotten their ass kicked by Southern Cal again, but, this afternoon, the two-time defending national champion UCLA Men’s Water Polo team has an opportunity to avenge last week’s regular season loss to Southern Cal by beating them in the MSPF Championship game.

The team didn’t have an easy match in their MPSF Semi-Final game against UC Berkeley on Friday. The Golden Bears had a 5-3 lead at the half.

Both teams added a goal in the third to make it 6-4 after three. In the fourth quarter, after Matt Farmer cut the lead to 6-5, Alex Roelse scored on a power play goal to tie it up at 6-6. The Golden Bears took the lead back 13 seconds later on a goal by Odysseas Masmanidis. But when UCLA had a two-man advantage on a power play, Patrick Fellner came through and tied it up again.

UC Berkeley came right back and made it 8-7 on a Chandler Jarrels power play goal. Fellner tied it up again to complete a hat trick. Not to be outdone, Johnny Hooper gave the Bears the edge again with his fourth goal of the game. Senior Gordon Marshall saved the game for UCLA when he scored with 1:10 remaining. That goal sent it to overtime.

In the first OT, Fellner and Masmanidis traded goals to knot the game at 10-10 and force a second overtime.

In the second OT, Roelse scored his second goal of the game to give the Bruins an 11-10 edge with about two minutes to go. UC Berkeley tried to score again to tie it, but Garrett Danner saved the shot and the Bruins took home the victory.

#2 UCLA Men’s Water Polo (25-1)

Opponent: #1 Southern Cal Trojans (22-1)

When: 1:00 PM PT, Sunday, November 20, 2016

Where: Spieker Aquatics Complex, Los Angeles, CA

TV: Pac-12 Network National, Bay Area and Los Angeles

Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app

Official Tournament Preview

Go Bruins!!!