BERKELEY - After going 4-0 during a two-week homestand, the No. 1-ranked Cal men's water polo team heads to Southern California for its biggest test to date as the Bears take part in the Mountain Pacific Invitational hosted by USC and Loyola Marymount. Cal opens play on Friday at LMU when it takes on Air Force at noon. The Bears will play two matches on Saturday and another on Sunday with time and site determined by results. The tournament championship will be held on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center.

Last weekend, the Bears played host to No. 8 Pepperdine and No. 13 UC San Diego, emerging with a hard-fought win over the Waves and a convincing victory over the Toreros. In an 8-6 triumph over Pepperdine, eight different Bears found the net and Spencer Tagg made eight saves to earn his fourth win in the cage. The next day, Johnny Hooper, Luca Cupido and Odysseas Masmanidis each recorded a hat trick and Cal built an 8-2 lead in the second quarter en route to the win. Kevin Le Vine drew the assignment in the cage and made eight saves.

NO WAITING AROUND
Cal's offense has been in high gear from the very start of the 2017 season as the Bears enter the Mountain Pacific Invitational averaging 13.50 goals per match. Johnny Hooper, who has only played in half of Cal's eight matches, ranks third in the MPSF in goals per game with 2.50 while Luca Cupido (seventh, 2.25) and Odysseas Masmanidis (ninth, 2.13) also rank in the top 10.

SCOUTING THE FIELD

• 14 of the 16 teams competing in Los Angeles enter the weekend ranked in the CWPA Top 20. Cal's first opponent, Air Force, is not ranked and enters with a record of 1-5. The Falcons won their first match of 2017 last weekend with a 15-8 victory over Cal Lutheran.
• The weekend will give Cal its first look at fellow MPSF competitors USC, Stanford and UCLA. That foursome represents the top four in the CWPA rankings and features three (USC, UCLA) of the four teams that competed in the 2016 NCAA Championships at Spieker Aquatics Complex.
• All eight of Cal's wins in 2017 have come against teams competing this weekend.
• Cal hosted the Mountain Pacific Invitational in 2016 and placed second, dropping a 10-7 decision to UCLA in the final that the Bears would eventually avenge at the NCAA Championships. The tournament was particularly noteworthy for Cal's 10-8 victory over USC in the semifinals, an evening win that took place in front of a raucous pro-Bears crowd. Johnny Hooper scored three goals and Lazar Andric stopped 10 shots while also scoring a crucial length-of-the-pool insurance goal with 32 seconds left.

NEXT UP
After a challenging week in Southern California, the Bears will return to Berkeley only to travel right back to the southern portion of the state as they'll take on UC Santa Barbara on Sept. 30. Cal returns to Spieker Aquatics Complex on Oct. 4 to host Santa Clara in the first game of a three-game homestand that will also include matches against UC Irvine and San Jose State.