Just on the other side of the parking lot, the Golden Bears prowled into the den of red and green trees in a Bay Area football rivalry showdown.

But the Bruins did not come to Palo Alto, California, to throw around the pigskin.

Instead, they came to jostle in the water.

No. 1 seed UCLA (24-1, 5-1 MPSF) took down No. 4 seed California (15-7, 1-5) 11-9 in the MPSF tournament’s semifinal match Saturday afternoon at Avery Aquatic Center in Palo Alto. The Bruins will return to Stanford for the championship game against the winner of No. 2 seed USC or No. 3 seed Stanford.

The second-round victory was emblematic of what coach Adam Wright has described as a hallmark of the 2025 Bruins: They find a way to win.

“Credit to Cal – all respect in the world to Kirk (California coach Kirk Everist) and that program,” Wright said. “I told the guys last night, ‘This is going to be a very different game.’ The reality is, they’re not going to hand you anything.”

The Bruins were shut out for a quarter – missing all seven of their first-quarter shot attempts – for the first time this season. Despite drawing 10 total exclusions, UCLA failed to score on all of its power plays. Furthermore, a total of 10 turnovers sabotaged additional scoring opportunities.

On the other end, an aggressive UCLA defense – powered by eight saves from redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Nate Tauscher – still accumulated three penalties. After a four-goal second frame to even the match at halftime at four apiece, two early penalty shots allowed the Golden Bears to tie the game at six with just over two minutes into the third.

“They had to make a choice,” Wright said. “If they’re going to hang on and play not to lose or play afraid, it’s going to be really difficult. We don’t need to be on edge. We’re most dangerous when we’re under control and we’re being smart with the ball.”

As the crowd heckled and jeered at each call, both the Bruins and Golden Bears fought in what would be a competitive and high-energy affair. 

Both squads combined for 22 total turnovers, which kept scoring numbers tight. Additionally, both defenses met the other high in the pool and crowded the low center, knocking caps off and forcing shots off iron.

Nonetheless, the Bruins’ offense found enough power from a group effort in which four players had a pair of goals each. Sophomore utility Bode Brinkema and junior center Marcell Szécsi combined for three goals in the second quarter to come back from a 3-0 deficit after the first stanza. 

But after almost a three-minute lull in scoring by UCLA in the middle of the third, it was sophomore utility Peter Castillo who energized a rowdy Westwood fandom with his first goal of the game after his first two misses off an interior lob from sophomore attacker Ryder Dodd. Dodd kept the vigor going to open the fourth quarter with a recovery off a miss by senior utility Gray Carson to immediately rebound into a goal.

“We knew we had to get back to our details, get back to what our strength is,” Castillo said. “Playing disciplined, fast and smart – doing that one possession at a time.”

Although UCLA captured all of its regular-season matches against California by an average five-point margin, the postseason environment delivered a much more contentious effort. 

The Golden Bears were led by All-MPSF First Team attacker Beso Akhvlediani and attacker Bende Pardi, each posting a hat trick, with the latter doing so on a perfect 3/3 clip. Trailing close behind was attacker Tomas Perrone’s pair of scores.

However, the two teams’ average of a .376 shot percentage kept the game’s margin no higher than two, until redshirt junior attacker Frederico Jucá Carsalade’s second goal of the game hit the back of the net with under 80 seconds left, to which he smiled and waved to the Stanford crowd.

Although Pardi’s third goal with 64 seconds remaining in the game gave some breath of life, the Bruins were able to volley the ball across the pool to retain enough possession for the clock to strike zero.

“I have big hopes, and I believe in our team,” Szécsi said. “Even if we go down at the start, I have zero worries that we’re not going to get back in the game. I was just focusing on myself and the team, not to drop our attitude towards the game. I was just going all in. I was like, ‘I’m going to do my job, and if the ball gets there, I’m going to do what I need to do.’”

The Bruins will now look to the MPSF championship match at 3 p.m. Sunday.