No. 6 Men’s Water Polo Falls 9-6 at No. 3 Cal

Friday, September 14

Berkeley, Calif.

6:00 PM

Long Beach State University

California

Photo by: Photo by John Fajardo

9/14/2018 8:30:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Long Beach State hit the road on Friday night and suffered a 9-6 defeat against No. 3 California in Berkeley in the Golden Bears’ home opener.

By: Tyler Hendrickson, Associate Athletic Communications Director

BERKELEY, Calif. -- No. 6 Long Beach State (6-2) was unable to pull the upset over No. 3 California (7-0) on Friday night at Spieker Aquatics Complex, dropping a 9-6 decision against the Golden Bears. Chandler Kaltenbach and Austin Stewart each had a pair of goals to pace the Beach in the game.

After Cal scored first just over a minute into the first quarter, Stewart responded with a tying goal with 5:23 left in the opening period. The Golden Bears would score the next two goals and, despite a second-quarter goal from Johnathan Wong, Cal led 5-2 at halftime.

The hosts took their biggest lead at 8-3 at the start of the fourth, but back-to-back goals from Kaltenbach, including a five-meter penalty, pulled LBSU within three again at 8-5. Curtis Casper recorded the final goal of the night, allowing LBSU to win the final quarter, 3-2.

Marwan Darwish got the start in the cage and recorded seven saves. Interestingly enough, Cal has now won five straight games by exactly three goals, with four of those wins coming against Golden Coast Conference competition.

Long Beach State will return to Southern California for its next match, visiting UC San Diego on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m.