LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The 10^th-ranked UC Irvine men's water polo team dropped a 10-5 decision to No. 7 Cal on the first day of the MPSF Invitational Friday afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Center.
 
UCI falls to 5-3 on the season while Cal improves to 8-3 overall.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
> Casey Lynton and Chad Gornay led the Anteaters with two goals apiece
> Jon Polos also added a UCI goal
> Harrison Land made 11 saves for a .524 save percentage
> The Bears were led by Safak Simsek and Nikos Delagrammatikas with two goals each
> UCI was outshot 34-28 and Cal went 2-3 on five-meter penalty shots
 
TURNING POINTS
Quarter One
> The 'Eaters took a 1-0 lead after Lynton fired in a goal at 6:54
> Cal tied things up at 6:11, 1-1
> The Bears would add two more goals to take a 3-1 lead
 
Quarter Two
> Cal went up 5-1, scoring twice early in the quarter
> Polos fired in a goal for UCI with just over a minute left in the frame before the Bears' Nikolaos Papanikolau scored in the final seconds to make it 6-2 at the half
 
Quarter Three
> Jason Evezard dished a pass to Lynton who fired in a goal to open-up the quarter, 6-3 (6:46)
> The Bears would answer before Gornay scored for UCI at 3:02 to make it 7-4
 
Quarter Four
> Cal would score on two five-meter penalty opportunities to seal the 10-5 win
> Gornay tallied his second goal of the day with 26 seconds left to play
 
UP NEXT
> UCI will continue action at the MPSF Invite and will play Pomona-Pitzer tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. at Burns Aquatics Center on the campus of LMU