Cal at the Olympics: USA Men's Water Polo Tanked by Italy in Opener

The Nigerian women's soccer team, featuring Golden Bear alum Ifeoma Onumonu, nearly pulled a massive upset vs. top-ranked Spain

Luca Cupido, second from right, with his USA teammates / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Updated

The USA men’s water polo team, featuring three players from Cal, is off to a rough start at the Paris Olympics after a 12-8 loss to Italy in pool play on Sunday.

The Nigerian women’s soccer team, with Cal alum Ifeoma Onumonu playing much of the second half, battled top-ranked Spain on even terms before allowing a goal at 85 minutes in a 1-0 defeat

Meanwhile, a pair of former Cal rowers — Australia’s Jack Robertson and New Zealand’s Tim Roth — each advanced through heats of the men’s four into Thursday’s Final A.

Water polo

Italy 12, USA 8: Three Cal alumni – Johnny Hooper, Luca Cupido and Adrian Weinberg -- played for the United States in its opening match in group play.

Playing catchup from the start of their pool-play opener, the USA men’s water polo team could not overcome a 9-4 deficit entering the fourth quarter.

Cal grad Johnny Hooper, playing in his second Olympics, scored the final goal for the Americans with 26 seconds left in the final period. That was the only goal of the day for the 27-year-old, a former 3-time All-American who recorded 245 career goals for the Bears.

Hannes Daube scored three times for the USA while Max Irving and Alex Bowen each had two goals. Luca Cupido, 28, the Peter J. Cutino Award winner as the nation’s top college player as a senior at Cal in 2017, did not score.

Goalkeeper Adrian Weinberg, who anchored the Bears’ three straight NCAA championship teams through last fall, made eight saves against 22 shots by Italy in his Olympic debut.

Nine different players scored for Italy, which won the silver medal at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar in February. USA placed ninth in that event.

The Americans return to action Tuesday against Romania, which lost 14-7 to Greece on Sunday.

Greece 14, Romania 7: Nikolaos Papanikolaou, regarded as possibly Cal’s greatest water polo player, scored once in his Olympic debut and Greece went on to victory in its first game of group play.

A three-time winner of the Peter J. Cutino Award as the nation’s top player at the collegiate level,  Papanikolaou scored at 7:34 of the second period to give Greece a 5-2 lead.

Greece led 9-5 at halftime and maintained control the rest of the way.

Papanikolaou was a five-time All-America selection for Cal, leading the Bears to NCAA championships each of the past three seasons. He played 12 minutes, 50 seconds against Romania and converted his only shot of the game for a goal.

Kanakakis Argryopoulos scored four goals to lead Greece, which out-shot Romania 37-26.

Greece returns to group play Tuesday against Montenegro, which lost 11-8 to reigning world champion Croatia in its opener on Sunday.

Women’s soccer

Spain 1, Nigeria 0: Onumonu and the Nigerians toyed with a huge upset before losing to the world’s top-ranked team in group play. Nigeria is ranked No. 36 globally.

Spain dominated the action, out-shooting Nigeria 21-2 through the game’s first 85 minutes, before Alexia Putellas — the team captain who plays professionally for Barcelona — scored on a direct free kick to put Spain ahead.

With the Spaniards settling in on defense to protect their lead, Nigeria managed two shots on goal in the final two minutes-plus in the second half but could not score the game-tying goal.

Spain finished with a 23-4 advantage in shot attempts and a 15-1 edge in corner kicks.

Nigeria (0-2) closes group play against Japan on Wednesday.

Onumonu was not in Nigeria’s starting lineup against Spain, but she checked in at 61 minutes and played the final 29 minutes.

The 30-year-old forward, who starred at Cal from 2013-16 and is fifth in program history with 33 goals, previously played on Nigeria’s 2023 World Cup team.

Rowing

Martin Mackovic, Serbia: The Serbian double sculls team of Mackovic and Nikolaj Pimenov advanced to Tuesday’s semifinals after decisively winning their repechage race. They crossed the finish line in 6 minutes 31.54 seconds, well ahead of runner-up Germany (6:34.59). Mackovic and Pimenov had finished just fourth in their opening race on Saturday and needed to finish in the top three in the repechage round to qualify for the semifinals. Mackovic, 28, competed at Cal from 2016 through ’18, helping the Bears’ varsity eight boat capture the 2016 national title. He is hoping to improve upon a fifth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Ollie Maclean, New Zealand: First-time Olympian Maclean and his New Zealand teammates won their heat in the men’s four to advance to Final A. The quartet was clocked in 6:03.08 to claim the top spot in a race where only the top two finishers qualified for Final A. Maclean, 26, was a member of the Cal varsity eight boats that won the IRA national championships in 2022 and 2023.

Jack Robertson, Australia: First-time Olympian Robertson and his men’s four Aussie teammates qualified for Final A with a second-place finish in their first-round heat. They crossed the finish line at 6:06.84, well back of heat winner USA, which was timed in 6:04.95. Robertson graduated magna cum laude from Cal in 2021 and received a masters degree in Sociology at Oxford. He captured a bronze medal in the men’s eight at the 2023 World Rowing Championships.

Tim Roth, Switzerland: A current member of the Cal crew program, Roth and his Swiss teammates finished last among four teams in their opening heat in the men’s four and will compete next in Tuesday’s repechage round to try to qualify. They logged a time of 6:10.86, well back of the USA and Australia, which went 1-2 in the race. Roth, who stands 6-foot-8, helped Cal’s varsity eight to IRA national championship victories in 2022 and 2023. He took off the most recent academic year to prepare for the Olympics.

Inger Kavlie, Norway: Kavlie and teammate Thea Helseth advanced through the repechage round of women’s double sculls with a second-place finish. They crossed in 7:10.39, trailing only race winner Netherlands (7:08.42) to move on to the semifinals. Kavlie, a first-time Olympian who rowed at Cal from 2014 through 2017, and Helseth finished fourth in their opening race on Saturday, requiring them to record a top-three finish in the repechage round.

Badminton

Vinson Chiu and Jenni Gai, USA: Cal graduates Chiu and Gai were eliminated from medal consideration in mixed doubles when they lost a close match to Chen Tang Jie and Ee Wie Toh of Malaysia 21-15, 24-22 in their second match of Group D pool play.  Chiu and Gai have one more match to play in their four-team group, but they are 0-2 in matches and only the top two pairs from each group advance to the quarterfinals.  Two other pairs in Group D have already won twice.

Annie Xu and Kerry Xu, USA: The Xu twin sisters lost a long, three-game women’s doubles match to Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam of Hong Kong, 24-22, 17-21, 21-12 in group pool play. The Xu sisters, who are 2020 graduates of Cal, are 0-2 in group play with one game remaining. The top two finishers from each four-team group advance to the quarterfinals, and the Xu sisters wll need a lot of things to fall their way to advance.

Vinson Chiu and Joshua Yuan, USA: The two Cal products lost to Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi of China, 21-13, 21-14, in men’s double pool play. Chiu and Yuan are 0-2 in pool play, which makes them long shots to advance to the quarterfinals out of their five-team group. Chiu and Yuan are both first-time Olympians.

Table Tennis

Lily Zhang, USA: Zhang advanced to the round of 32 by beating Mariana Sahakian 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6) in her opening match on Sunday.  She will play her next round on Monday against Bruna Takahashi of Brazil. Zhang is a 2018 Cal graduate and a six-time U.S. national champion competing in her fourth Olympics.

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