For the second year in a row, the men’s water polo program at University of the Pacific won the West Coast Conference Regular Season Championship.

The victory came Sunday for the eighth-ranked Tigers when they defeated No. 12 Cal Baptist at the Douglas M. Eberhardt Aquatics Center in their final home game of the year, capturing their fourth championship in four seasons without ever trailing in the contest.

The Tigers also secured the No. 1 seed for the 2025 West Coast Conference Tournament, scheduled for Nov. 21-23 and hosted by Air Force.

“The amount of improvement we’ve seen over the course of the year from such a young team has been remarkable. They’ve truly grown together, supported one another and learned what it takes to win games at this level,” said Head Coach James Graham. “To win at our home pool against the team that ended our season last year means a lot. I can’t thank everyone enough who came out and supported us today and over the course of the season so far.”

Pacific won its eighth consecutive game and third straight home match. The Tigers were picked to finish third in the WCC Preseason Poll.

“We knew coming into the season that we could beat teams that were picked above us, and this team played with a lot of confidence all year,” said sophomore Ori Buzaglo ’28, an electrical engineering major and member of last year’s championship team. “We wanted to prove to everyone that we could do it with this group, and I’m super proud of these guys. Winning this championship two years in a row is an incredible accomplishment.”

Buzaglo was one of three student-athletes to score a hat trick in Sunday’s win. The Tigers got out to an early 5-1 lead in the first quarter and remained ahead 8-4 at the half. Pacific extended it to 12-6 late in the third and successfully ran out the clock in the final minutes.

The Tigers improved to 18-2 all-time against CBU.

After the match, Pacific honored 10 seniors in a special Senior Day ceremony. The group included Ethan Braga ’26 (communications), Nash Brandon ’25 (business finance), Charlie Donlin ’26 (communications), Declan McJilton ’25 (sport management), Alek Newman ’26 (business analytics), Filip Norell ’25 (communications), Manuel Pembertty ’25 (finance), Eli Sternweiler ’26 (business analytics), Daniel Viscia ’25 (health and exercise science) and Daniel Warman ’26 (sport management).

All 10 seniors had been on the team for at least four seasons. Viscia led the seniors with 28 goals this year, which included two on Senior Day.

“Winning the conference is always a goal for us, and I’m really happy we won the regular season, but our focus now is winning the conference tournament,” said Viscia, who’s been on the team the last five seasons. “This is a close group of guys outside of the pool, and we’re more than just teammates—we’re a family. I’m proud to be able to win with them, but there’s more we want to achieve this year.”

Pacific continues the regular season Friday when it travels to No. 2 UCLA for a 5 p.m. match. The Tigers wrap up the regular season Sunday, Nov. 9 in a 1 p.m. road match at No. 3 Stanford. See the full schedule.