The Long Beach State men’s water polo team (10-15, 2-6) has finally picked up steam, winning three of its last four matches including a 7-5 win over UC Irvine to clinch the final spot in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.
In his first year as head coach, Gavin Arroyo and his seventh-seeded team will have a rematch against the No. 2 California Friday at 11:30 a.m. on the UCI campus.
“The pressure is on [Cal] to win. They are the Notre Dame of water polo and we have nothing to lose,” Arroyo said. “No one expected much from us. Like I told the team, ‘lets prove them wrong.'”
Over the past three weeks, The Beach has pulled off upset victories against Pepperdine (12-11), Loyola Marymount (9-7) and UCI (7-5).
The last time the two squads met, Cal handed The Beach its second most lopsided loss of the season, 14-5.
Also, the last time Arroyo coached was as an assistant coach for Cal.
Not only did Arroyo coach the Golden Bears (26-4, 6-2) for eight years before coming to Long Beach, he graduated from Cal in 1994.
“It’s going to be one of those games where I know everything about them and they know everything about me. There will be no secrets in this one,” Arroyo said.
Jay Gerardi, who leads The Beach in goals this season with 46, will play in the tournament, Arroyo said. Gerardi missed the game against LMU two weeks ago while nursing an injured shoulder, but returned in the match against UCLA this past weekend.
The LBSU-Cal match up will be the first match of the three-round tournament. The winner will match up against the winner of the UCLA-Pacific game on Saturday. The winner of that game will then play the tournament championship Sunday.
