Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme) – Spear Reporter
SJSU men’s water polo (10-14, 0-4 GCC) took on No. 1 University of California, Berkeley (18-1, 2-0 GCC) on Sunday and lost 17-4 at the Spartans Recreation and Aquatic Center.
SJSU had a slow start to the match and found itself down 4-0 in the blink of an eye.
The Golden Bears kept their foot on the gas pedal and scored a penalty shot goal from sophomore attacker Max Casabella.
The first goal for the blue-and-golf came at the six-minute mark of the second period by junior utility player Mark Kis. The goal made the score 7-1.
Any hope the goal gave the Spartans was short lived as the Golden Bears proceeded to go on a four-goal scoring run.
By the end of the second period the deficit had ballooned to 11-2.
The SJSU men’s water polo offense would apply pressure at the start of the second half. Cal junior goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg would be a wall in front of the net denying any shots coming his way.
Cal had another solid period making the score 14-4.
The offense for the blue-and-yellow found no more goals for the rest of the game as the score finished at 17-4.
The Spartans had a total of 31 shots in the loss.
“It was a good game for us. We got to play a lot of guys we wanted to go through before we wanted to get to the conference championship,” said head coach Bruce Watson.
SJSU men’s water polo’s next game will be on Friday at 1 p.m. against the University of the Pacific at the Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center.