The last time UCLA faced California at Spieker Pool, it was a heartbreaking loss for the Bruins.

Today, the stakes were high–a spot in the final match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament and with it chance at an automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament.

The Bruins won 7-6 against the Bears, a team who previously this season has been difficult, if not impossible, for them to beat.

It was an emotional game with an inordinate amount of offensive fouls called.

A dispute broke out mid-game over whether sophomore Cristiano Miriarchi was punched in the face by a Cal player, though the dispute has yet to be settled. Both Cal and UCLA’s coaches were awarded yellow cards and UCLA assistant coach Daniel Leyson was given a red card after a penalty was called against the Bruins.

That penalty was critical, moving the score from 6-5 in the Bruins’ favor to 6-6, carrying the game into overtime.

Freshman Paul Reynolds made the winning goal in the first period of overtime.

Redshirt senior Cullen Hennessey and junior Josh Samuels said that their ability to ignore outside factors, such as calls the referees might or might not have made, helped keep their emotions in check.

Yesterday’s game was a low-scoring affair that moved into overtime–today’s game was very similar. The players noted, though, that not only was their defense on today, but they were also taking more shots on goal.

The Bruins ended up with the ball with under thirty seconds left in overtime.
In their game of strategic keep-away, the ball ended up in Cal hands with just seconds to go. Redshirt junior goalie Matt Rapacz and the defense barely fended off the Golden Bears to finish the game.

Tomorrow marks the final rounds. UCLA will play at 3:00 tomorrow against USC for the MPSF title.

USC beat Stanford, in order to progress to the title game.

Rivals Cal and Stanford will play tomorrow for the third place title.

The first game of the day was an upset; eighth seeded Pacific beat fifth seed UC Santa Barbara for a spot in the fifth place game.

The next game, between seventh seeded UC Irvine and sixth seed Pepperdine, who the Bruins beat yesterday in overtime, resulted in a UC Irvine win, 5-4.