That was not the result that Cal fans were looking for. In a back-and-forth match, Cal and Stanford remained tied after 32 minutes in regulation. Stanford, unfortunately, outscored the Golden Bears by 1 in OT to win their 2nd straight Big Splash.
Regardless of this result, the top 4 may again be reshuffled next weekend at the MPSF tournament hosted by USC. Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and USC will vie for the 1 automatic bid and 2 at-large bid in the NCAA tournament, hosted by Stanford.
GO BEARS!
Although the California Golden Bears (16-4, 1-1 in MPSF) has made the NCAA postseason for the past three years, including winning it all for the all-time best 17th time in 2016, while Stanford Cardinal (17-2, 1-1 in MPSF) has missed the postseason for all 3 of those years, the Big Splash (the water polo’s version of The Game) has always been competitive with Stanford managing to win the Steve Heaston Trophy (the men’s water polo version of The Axe) last year with a 11-10 victory (Bears have won it for the 3 straight years before that).