STOCKTON, Calif. – The No. 7 Tiger men's water polo team heads to Irvine, California for the GCC Championships. Pacific enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed and will face the winner of the No. 3 seed UC Santa Barbara and No. 6 seed UC Irvine on Saturday at 5 p.m. on the campus of UC Irvine.  

For those on planning to attend the games, UC Irvine utilizes a mobile ticketing platform and a clear bag policy for all home games.All individuals on campus will be required to wear a mask or face covering while indoors, regardless of vaccination status, except when alone in an enclosed space. UC Irvine Athletics is directed by state, local and university guidelines. Policies are subject to change.
 
Live Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKR7enT44Y

Poll Chatter: Sitting at the No. 7 spot in the rankings for the last two weeks, the Tigers have faced all six teams ahead of them in the poll – No. 1 UCLA; No. 2 California; No. 3 USC; No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Long Beach State and No. 6 UC Santa Barbara.

Post-Season Honors: Freshman Reuel D'Souza was named the GCC Freshman of the Year, Second Team All-GCC and All-Freshman Team headlines the list of four Tigers who earned recognition from the Golden Coast Conference. Jeremie Cote and Bogdan Djerkovic were each named to the first team and Mihailo Vukazic joined D'Souza on the all-freshman team. 

Scoring Machine: The Pacific attack is led by Jeremie Cote, who has scored a team-high 46 goals on the season. Cote has scored a goal in 18 of 20 games for the season with a pair of five-goal games to his credit. Just one more than teammate Bogdan Djerkovic as Pacific has six players, who have scored at least 20 goals on the season. 

Big Time Bogdan: Bogdan Djerkovic has scored 4+ goals in four of his last five games.

Unselfish Play: Three Tigers have at least 20 assists with Reuel D'Souza leading the team with 27 assists. Also with 20+ assists are Djorde Stanic (25) and Mihailo Vukacic with 21. Vukacic had six assists in the Tigers' last game against UC Irvine. The last time that Pacific had a player with six assists was just a few games ago as Reuel D'Souza had six against Long Beach State on Oct. 28.

Sprint to Success: Matthew Hosmer, who also competes on the Pacific swim team, has posted 30 victories in sprints. Hosmer has won eight of his last sprints. Rene Peralta has added eight and Jeremie Cote has also won four.

Last Line of Defense: Goalkeeper John Hedges has made 217 saves on the season with a season-high 21 against UCSB on Sept. 26, 2021. On nine occasions, Hedges has made double-digit saves.