Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

2022 Delfina All-MPSF Men's Water Polo Teams Announced

11/16/2022 1:00:00 PM

Photo: California's Nikolaos Papanikolaou is the second player all-time to earn three-straight MPSF Player of the Year awards. 
(Photo by: Catharyn Hayne)
   
University of California junior Nikolaos Papanikolaou (Athens, Greece) enters the postseason with 50 goals on the year (2.50 GPG), second-most on the Bears and tied for fourth in the MPSF. He has put away 10 hat tricks, 16 multiple-goal games, and has tallied in all 20 of Cal’s contests. Through the regular season, Papanikolaou is two goals away from becoming the 22nd player in MPSF history to reach a career total of 200. He has also drawn a conference-high 63 exclusions this year, collected 10 field blocks to rank third in the MPSF, and 20 steals to rank within the top-10. Papanikolaou, a four-time first team all-conference selection, is Cal’s seventh all-time MPSF Player of the Year (Papanikolaou-2020-22, Luca Cupido-2017, Nick Kittredge-1995; Troy Barnhart-1993, Chris Oeding-1992). He is also just the second men’s water polo player to earn the honor three-straight years (Tony Azevedo-Stanford, 2001-04).
 
USC grad student Massimo Di Martire (Naples, Italy) was named MPSF Newcomer of the Week a conference-high four times this year. Di Martire ranks tied for fourth in goals (50), tied for third in points (71), and tied for seventh in steals (21) in the MPSF entering the postseason. He scored in 19 of USC’s 21 regular season games, producing 14 multiple-goal efforts and nine hat tricks. Against MPSF opponents, he had two four-goal games against UCLA, one four goal game against Stanford, and a three-goal outing against California. His career-high came with a six-goal output in a 14-10 overtime win over No. 7 Long Beach State (Sept. 8), scoring his third goal to force overtime, before adding three more in the extra sessions. Di Martire is USC’s fourth MPSF Newcomer of the Year (Hannes Daube-2018, Matt Maier-2016, Joel Dennerley-2008).
 
University of California Head Coach Kirk Everist guided the Golden Bears to a 19-1 (.950) regular season record and the nation’s No. 1 ranking. For the second-straight year, Cal swept its regular season MPSF schedule to earn the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Four of California’s wins were against MPSF and top-five competition, while five other wins came against the top-10. California seven players on the All-MPSF teams this year, including a conference-high four on the first team. Everist is 432-128 overall (.771) since taking over the Cal program in 2002. This is the fourth MPSF Coach of the Year award for Everist, and becomes the first all-time to win three consecutively. This is also the sixth time Cal has received the award (Everist-2020-22, 2002; Steve Heaston-1995, 1992).

MPSF EAST MAJOR AWARDS
 
Austin College senior Cade Griffith (Oak Brook, IL) shares the MPSF scoring lead through the regular season with 58 goals, which also leads the eastern division. Through his 17 games, Griffith averages a conference-best 3.41 goals per game. He was one of two eastern division players to earn multiple player of the week awards. His first recognition came on Oct. 10 after accumulating 15 goals in four games in Southern California, which included a then-matching 2022 MPSF season-high six goals vs. D-II Biola along with a hat trick against D-I No. 17 Santa Clara. Griffith’s second award also came after a SoCal road trip to close the regular season, when he totaled nine goals and seven steals at top-ranked D-III Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne. Griffith is the first player from Austin College to win a major end-of-the-year MPSF award.
 
Augustana true freshman goalkeeper Declan Hutton (Bedfordview, South Africa) totaled 135 saves in the regular season, leading the MPSF’s eastern division and ranking fourth in the entire conference. Hutton’s save percentage of .584 is also the best amongst the eastern goalkeepers and ranks third in the conference. His 28 regular season steals are just one shy of the MPSF leaderboard. On September 10, Hutton collected 22 saves (.759) against Mercyhurst, the most in the MPSF since 2019 and sixth-most all-time, leading to his MPSF/S&R Sport Newcomer of the Week honor. He accumulated eight double-digit save performances and had at least one steal in every outing this year. The Vikings, competing in just their second men’s water polo season and first in the MPSF, went unbeaten in the conference schedule and won 12 of 17 regular season games (.706).
 
Austin College Head Coach Mark Lawrence coached a Kangaroo team which played an extremely competitive schedule in 2022. Austin played five NCAA Division-I teams (including nationally-ranked Harvard, UC San Diego, and Santa Clara), two NCAA Division-II teams, and several highly-ranked D-III teams all on the road during its 18-game regular season. The Kangaroos managed five regular season wins and a 2-1 winning record in MPSF games to take second-place in the eastern division. This season, Cade Griffith became the school’s first-ever MPSF Player of the Year, while Max Wade is the squad’s first-ever multiple all-conference award recipient. Lawrence, a two-time CWPA Coach of the Year, earns his first career MPSF Coach of the Year award.